Riverlands

Yesterday I wandered around town for a while, then called it an early night. My alarm went off at 04:15 so I could finish packing and walk to the Dolphin Encounter tour office. So I could go swimming with Dusky dolphins!!!!

It was incredible. The first of three pods we dove in with were feeding on schools of fish, which is unusual to see during the day. They numbered about 100! I went in with my waterproof camera and got some amazing pics and a video. They were so close! One looked me dead in the eye as I spun around while he/she circled me. I could see the intelligence studying me. It was truly tear worthy and one of the best animal activities I've ever done. After we changed into dry clothes, we found another pod and took above water pics of them jumping and splashing around. It looked like they were having a lot of fun. I know I was!

We got back at 09:00, which is when the bus was supposed to leave, but since there were six of us, the driver picked us up from there. Really cool.

We've been on the road ever since and passed by NZ's largest seal colony that stretches 4-5 kilometers along the coast. It's pup season and there were so many very little ones. I hope you can spot some in the video.

Now, we have just arrived in Blenheim (pronounced blen-um). Our final destination today is Wellington, which means we'll be on the ferry crossing Cook Strait this afternoon. Fingers crossed we see orcas or bottle-nosed dolphins!

So long [for now] and thanks for all the DOLPHINS!! ✌️

P.S.: Our tour guide finished our boat trip with the following quote, which is from the same book I took my sign off line, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

"On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.” Lue lisää