Our day began with an early wakeup at 4:30am (ouch!) for the 5:30am Dolphin Encounter. Early wakeup plus the mere thought of jumping into 55 degree F water caused us to have some second thoughts, but they were soon forgotten.
We put on our lovely wetsuits, which although damp, kept us surprisingly warm. We watched a safety video explaining that the dolphins might have no interest in us, so don’t be disappointed that you woke up SUPER early and willingly jumped into freezing cold water to see potentially nothing.
We boarded the bus to take us to the boat and before we knew it were were cruising away with a lovely view of snow-capped mountains greeting us from the Kaikoura Coastline. We started spotting Dusky Dolphins and I got nervous – shoot – now I have to jump in the water. As we sat on the back of the boat with our flippered feet feeling like popsicles, I thought “I hope it’s” worth it.
OH MY GOSH. Upon jumping in, two things immediately strike you. First, the sensation of COLD water trickling into your wetsuit, and second, “OMG there is a dolphin swimming right at my face at this very moment”. We were instructed to “sing” to the dolphins, as they are curious about noise – “la la la la la” was my call to the dolphins and they seemed to respond well, as I had several come within inches and swim around in circles with me, in an effort to check me out. After a while, the pod we were swimming with moved on, so we got back on the boat and tried again. This is when you realize how cold you actually are. We made three swims with the dolphins, each of which was fantastic. Upon climbing onboard, our guide told us there was a surprise in store that were were going to check out. I had a heck of a time trying to get off my wetsuit with essentially non-functioning fingers and then had the further pleasure of stripping down and struggling immensely to put on all of my warmest clothes without the use of my hands. No time for embarrassment when you are freezing your you know what off. Glad I hurried though because just as I was clothed, I heard the unmistakable sound of a whale coming to the surface of the water. An out of season humpback whale decided to come over and visit and what a treat! He got so close to the boat and the dolphins were playing with him, it was incredible (so much for feeling torn about whether to do the Whale Watch instead). We were then served hot coacoa and cookies to round out the experience as AWESOME and 100% worth it.
After returning, we made our way back to the hostel for a nice long hot shower and boy, did it feel good. We packed up and hit the road north to Blenheim, NZ’s famous Sauvignon Blanc country. We did pull over for some awesome fur seal viewing points, including a waterfall that baby seals hang out at. Very cool. Not cool was the drowsiness while driving that set in around 10:30am (we had been up 6 hours already). We had to pull over and take a mini nap in a cafe parking lot and get a “flat white” – NZ capaccino and frothed milk thing before carrying on.
We finally made it to Blenheim, and visited several wineries, including Yealands, Lawson’s, Auntsfield, Georges Michel, Moa (beer), St. Claire, and a nice chocolate shop too. Nearly all the wineries offered FREE tastings – it was usually just the two of us and the person pouring the wine and telling us all about the different flavors. For being proclaimed “I’m not really a fan of white wine” folks, we sure enjoyed the fruity and crisp flavors on NZ wine!
We then made our way over to a place called SCOTCH that came recommended as a good place for inexpensive food that isn’t McDonald’s (yuck). Even still, the tab for one burger and one large order of fries was $22 – yikes! I miss our cheap American food. The prices that is, all the food we’ve had so far has been lovely. After a filling supper to cap off a wonderfully sunny afternoon (this is the first time we’ve seen the sun for an extended period the entire trip =( we made our way to backpacker lodge #2. It’s definitely a no-frills way to stay some place for $50-70 a night, but they have generally been clean, quiet, had nice kitchen facilities and suited us quite well.
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