Some of New Zealand’s most spectacular encounters with large marine animals can be found at a place called Kaikoura on the South Island. The town is located on a small peninsula where steep, snow capped mountains, worthy of any Peter Jackson movie tower imposingly up from the sea. A deepwater canyon that drops to over one kilometre is located only a few miles from the coast. Upwelling of nutrients from the canyon makes this a highly productive region with species more normally seen way offshore such as sperm whales, wandering albatross, blue sharks and large squid occurring much closer inshore. Kaikoura is also one of the few places in the world where you can snorkel with large pods of dusky dolphins, an opportunity not to be missed.
After several days waiting because of unsuitable stormy weather, we finally got the call that the dolphin trip was going ahead. The launching ramp for the trip was about a ten minutes journey from Kaikoura. En route our guide provided us with a little detail about the dusky dolphins and briefed us on how to act around them. We were told that the dusky dolphins can be incredibly inquisitive underwater but only if you keep them interested by making lots of noise and moving around a lot e.g. diving down. The guide explained that ‘if you just float and focus on getting photos they will disappear in seconds!’ The trips use a spotter plane to make it a little easier to locate the dolphins over such a large range. We had good conditions with a glassy sea state and light winds. After about 40 minutes the captain heard over the radio from the plane that a ‘superpod’ (when several smaller pods join together) of over 300 dolphins were moving through the area! The crew of the trip were clearly excited as this news and the boat sped off in the direction of the sighting.
We hurriedly changed into the thick winter wetsuits and snorkel gear. It wasn't long before we could make out the shape of hundreds of large dorsal fins slicing through the water. Once we were ahead of the dolphins the guide bellowed “go, go, everyone in the water”. Chaos ensued for a few seconds with people throwing themselves overboard in all directions. The bubbles slowly disappeared leaving a blanket of green surrounding us. The water was a much colder than at the Poor Knights Islands. We could hear the clicks and squeals of dolphins communicating. I looked into the abyss below and then around me, but could only see my girlfriend who was also frantically looking around. Moments later another group of dolphins from the pod shot towards us out of the murk. This time we changed our tactics and started to dive down and spin around. The dolphins immediately started to respond to our actions, weaving and dodging around us. Taking shots (and grabbing a breath!) had to be awkwardly done at the same time as undertaking the rather comical looking ‘dolphin dance’! Large groups of as many as ten or fifteen curious individuals would check us out, often for several minutes, before dispersing away. Eventually all the dolphins in the pod passed and were left floating around in the current with only the faint sound of the dolphin calls in the distance. We swam back to the boat and clambered back on board, everyone was shivering but ecstatic from the massive adrenalin buzz.
As dolphin swimming and snorkeling becomes increasingly popular and commercial around the world, the experience we had at Kaikoura, like so much of New Zealand felt refreshingly wild and untamed.
