Swimming with Dolphins

Yesterday was just a travel day, we went from the Coromandel Peninsula to the Bay of Plenty, Mount Maunganui. The drive was beautiful, all one lane roads through mostly uninhabited windy, hilly countryside.

Our campsite is right at the base of Mount Maunganui, or the Mount as locals call it. It was once an active volcano. Now the area is where many Kiwi's go on holiday. The beaches are beautiful, the surfing looks very good, restaurants line the beachfront, and the Mount can be scaled quite easily. Sheep roam the Mount and they are very sweet to observe. Our campsite has beach to the front and the Mount to the rear.

The primary reason we came to this region was to swim with the dolphins. This region is known for their high success rate of spotting dolphins and allowing passengers to swim alongside dolphins in their natural habitats. They manage to do this in a way that is very safe for the animals and the company we chose is also very eco-friendly. The boat has a swim bar (a railing) at the back of the boat that swimmers hold on to, and the swimmers are then trailed behind the boat at the same speed at which the dolphins are swimming. The dolphins love the interaction and frequently play and put on quite a show for the swimmers. If there are baby dolphins in the pod swimming is not allowed. Dolphins are spotted over 90% of the time and most of the time swimming with them is possible. We have seen dolphins quite easily and frequently in the wild before, so seeing them was not in itself going to impress us, we were really hoping for the water interaction. And Elle was most excited!

The boat boarded at 9am and returned at 430pm, a long day for all of us. And once again, Elle and Liam really rallied for us. Our captain was quite a character and lucky for us, he loves children! We had only about 15 other participants aboard, and their nationalities spanned the globe. We all donned our wetsuits and the boat set sail, we were on a dolphin finding mission.

Soon after we left the bay we spotted a group of baby penguins in the water, they were adorable and seemingly everywhere. Then, we spotted an enormous bait ball, larger fish were circling small fish and the small fish create a tight and shallow ball to protect themselves. This creates a boiling, bubbling mass on the water's surface. Justin was really wishing he had a rod.

I had a front row seat for our next spotting, a baby Mako shark (a very big baby) jumped and spun right in front of us. Those of us who saw it shrieked, and for good measure, the shark obliged and jumped again so everyone aboard got a view.

Later, we saw a fin in the water and at first it was thought to be a Marlin but as we drew closer it was determined to be a Hammerhead shark. We got quite close to him before he decided to go deep.

Then things got exciting. The captain radioed from above, and the skipper lept into action. All the hands on deck were communicating on radios and directions were being shouted. The boat turned, it went in reverse, it sped up... none of us had any idea what was going on. Then, the skipper moved to the rear of the boat to point out the object of so much interest and excitement-- a plastic water bottle, litter. They fished it out of the water. And onward we went. Did I mention that they claim to be very eco-concious? I felt good about retrieving the bottle, but it was a bit of a letdown after all the excitement it caused.

So, after nearly 8 hours at sea, we saw NO dolphins. The crew said that that almost never happens, maybe once a month. They speculate that because of recent rough weather, maybe the dolphins were elsewhere at the moment. We can come again another day for free... but I doubt we ever will. Regardless, we had a great day at sea, snorkeled a bit, met some fun people and there is one less piece of plastic litter adrift at sea.

Tomorrow we return to Auckland and fly to Christchurch, the South Island.