Over to the dolphin place nice and early to get kitted out for swim. There were only 9 of us on the trip, fewer than usual we were told.
Cruised around for over 30 minutes looking for the dolphins. There are around 20 000 dolphins in the Bay of Plenty area but it's still a lot of sea to search. Our boat was in constant radio contact with others and soon we got a tip off so off we sped. On the way me and Michelle saw what appeared to be a dolphin back flip about 2 metres out of the water! Everyone else missed it but Pete our guide said he would tell us more about it later.
This is a statue just coming out of the Whakatane Habour - there's a bit of an associated legend about some old Maori bird but I'll not bore you with the details!!
Anyway it was a good tip off as soon we came across a good sized pod of dolphins. Had quite a bit of time to take some pics. I was so excited I could've just dived in! A lot of the dolphins calves with them and it was cute seeing them get taught how to swim.
Pete split us into 2 groups for the first swim and we were a bit disappointed to be in the second as by now we were itching to get in!
The trick is for the boat to motor ahead of the dolphins and then jump in so that the pod is coming towards the swimmers naturally and not being chased. Unfortunately for the first group it didn't quite work out. No sooner did they get in the water than the dolphins 'did one'! I don't think the boat quite got in the optimum position and they got spooked so that swim was aborted and off we went to find another pod.
Fortunately the second attempt worked which we were pleased about as you don't like to feel like the dolphins are being hounded.
Soon it was our turn! We had about 6 swims all in all and it was an amazing experience difficult to put into words. We were looking down and surrounded by dolphins, not just a few but groups of about 20 in one direction then another 20 in another direction!
I did find the snorkelling quite difficult to gte to grips with. Sometimes the excitement got the better of me and I struggled with my breathing. Michelle was a bit braver than me and dived down to get even closer.
Euphoric after the swim we sailed over to Whale Island for a hot drink (much needed - Michelle's fingers and toes were going blue despite it being a gorgeous day!) and some lunch.
There was an option to do some snorkelling but as the main marine life consisted of jelly fish and planctum we decided to pass!
At this point Pete told us that the creature we'd seen back flip before, wasn't a dolphin. Apparently they don't do back flips. What we'd actually seen was a shark!!! A mako shark to be precise - here's the fella, friendly looking isn't he?!!
Pete understandably decided to omit this information until after the swim!
After the trip it was back on the road again for what looked like a reasonably short trip up the coast to Whitianga on the Coromandel Penninsula. Yet again our judgement of distance was miles off as it took us about 4 hours. Not a gravel road in sight and lovely scenery though so we weren't complaining.
After the last hostel expectations had been suitably lowered but we were in for a pleasant surprise. The 'On the Beach Backpackers' was an absolute gem of a place. Location was just what it said on the tin but betters still we were only sharing our bathroom and kitchen with one other room. No jostling for fridge space and not a miserable looking fruit picker in sight.
Out housemate had yet to arrive but we decided to make the most of our exclusive kitchen and cooked fajitas as a treat. I know that probably sounds like a sad sort of treat but after a month of sharing kitchen space with loads of randomers it was great!
We couldn't have been blessed with a better housemate either, an aussie called Catherine. She is a travel writer and in the process of writing the new edition of the NZ Rough Guide - AKA "The Book"! What's the chances of that to end up sharing with the person who wrote our bible! Obviously we made full use of all her travel knowledge as well as chatting about loads of other random stuff over several beers. It was by far the longest conversation we'd had with anyone since we'd been away and very welcome!
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