Photo from Jan Eric's GoPro
Sorry for the delay in posting but I have not had wi-fi for the last few days. The North Island has good wi-fi and the South Island is terrible, not really sure why. But I am now at a good hotel and Jan Eric and I have bought a package for the next couple of days, so I can catch you up. A couple of people asked for more information on the colossal squid, here is a link:
http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/?redirectedurl=true
Saturday, January
9th.
We had breakfast at
7:30 at the Encounters office before the dolphin cruise. Richard, Pam
and Lori went kayaking, Carol and Bev went hiking, Jane went whale
watching and the rest of us went for an encounter with the dusky
dolphins. I went as a watcher but the others went swimming with them.
I decided to save a little money and to act as official photographer.
We rode in the boat for a half hour along the coast until we found a pod of them. The captain dropped the swimmers off in five different locations over the next hour. At each place the swimmers were joined by dusky dolphins who circled them and swam under them. I stood up top and watched the action as the duskys swam, jumped and leaped all around. There were heaps of them. It was an amazing experience! I talked to the captain of the boat and learned about the dolphins and the pods of killer whales that come through here periodically and cause the dolphins to scatter. The killer whales can swim faster and nip off the tails of the dolphins to slow them down and then come back to dine on them. I asked about sharks and he said that there are far fewer sharks than thirty years ago because of the Asian diet for shark fin soup.
This was only the morning, the next post tells about what Jan and I did in the afternoon.
We rode in the boat for a half hour along the coast until we found a pod of them. The captain dropped the swimmers off in five different locations over the next hour. At each place the swimmers were joined by dusky dolphins who circled them and swam under them. I stood up top and watched the action as the duskys swam, jumped and leaped all around. There were heaps of them. It was an amazing experience! I talked to the captain of the boat and learned about the dolphins and the pods of killer whales that come through here periodically and cause the dolphins to scatter. The killer whales can swim faster and nip off the tails of the dolphins to slow them down and then come back to dine on them. I asked about sharks and he said that there are far fewer sharks than thirty years ago because of the Asian diet for shark fin soup.
This was only the morning, the next post tells about what Jan and I did in the afternoon.
I would be much happier sitting on the boat and watching those dolphins rather than swimming with them ,, good choice Joe
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