Dolphins and a sperm whale
New Zealand. I had hoped to be able to write about swimming with wild dolphins, but it didn’t quite work out. Cyclone Hale has been wreaking havoc in the past few days, mostly on the north island, but it also meant the wave swell was too rough to go out into the open ocean in a small boat today. As it happens, we did a nature cruise in the bay and still saw the rare Hector’s dolphins, which are tiny (males 1.2 m, females 1.5 m). There are only about 10,000 left in the wild, although the numbers have been slowly recovering from a low of 7,000, which is good news.
Diary entry, 12 January 2023
Today is our last full day in New Zealand. Tomorrow we fly back via San Francisco to London from Auckland. Over the past week or so, we headed from Kingston to Christchurch, staying in a small coastal village called Sumner. Our planned swim with the dolphins in Akaroa was cancelled due to the weather, but we were given a free nature cruise in the bay and managed to see the rare Hector’s dolphins after all.
We then made our way up the coast to Kaikoura and did a whale watching cruise, during which we were able to locate a sperm whale (by picking up their echo-location clicks) and observe it for the 5 minutes or so that it came up for breath. Unlike the excitement of dolphin watching, this was a more serene experience, feeling awe in the presence of these gentle giants and gratitude that they are no longer hunted here.
Here, we have been enjoying the local beach, and this morning we visited the Hot Water Beach, where a geothermal spring runs under the sand. The spot is only accessible at low tide and it wasn’t low enough for us to bury ourselves in the hot sand, but we managed to give our feet the spa treatment. Later today, we will walk to Cathedral Cove, with its stone arch carved by the sea.
Diary entry, 18 January 2023
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