Motuara Island & Dolphin watching tour

This morning we had a slow start. Had homemade scones for breakfast in the hostel. They were delicious. Ashleigh and I went for a walk around picton Town and looked in some shops in the morning.

In the afternoon I went on a boat tour with the girls. Ashleigh didn't want to come as it was a little expensive. We started the tour at Picton Harbour with the company Eko Tours. It was a beautiful sunny day. We had lovely views of the sounds coming out of picton harbour. We sailed out for only about 10 minutes and then saw little blue penguins popping their heads up near the front of the boat. There were a few of them there swimming. The blue penguin is the smallest type of penguin just over 25cm tall and only found in New Zealand and Australia. I felt lucky to see these beautiful penguins, especially in their natural habitat.

We also saw many birds. We saw some fluttering shearwater. They look like they were walking across the sea and make a fluttering sound. We also saw the rare King shag only about 800 of these birds and only found in New Zealand.

We were also lucky enough to see a few Dusky Dolphins swimming underneath the boat and near are feet while we were sat on the edge. We saw them jumping out of the water. They loved swimming near us and being around us. I managed to spot them riding the waves at the front of the interislander ferry. It was a great sight to see. Dusky dolphins have virtually no beak, and their dorsal fin is not hooked and rather blunt. Dusky Dolphins are only in South America, New Zealand and off south western Africa.

We also saw a few new zealand fur seals relaxing in the sun on the rocks. I'll attach a picture in tomorrow's blog as I can't attach more than 6 pictures a day and there were too many to choose from.

We stopped at Motuara Island a bird sanctuary for a walk. We spotted the NZ wood pigeon and Black Robin here. We walked to a viewing point and had amazing views of the malbourough sounds and we could just about see the North Island. Late afternoon we cruised back in the sunset with a glass of wine. It was stunning!Read more