Hi ya!! I arrived yesterday, Friday 1st July to Kaikoura and so far I love it!! It's really beautiful out here, small place, but very nice indeed :) We arrived late yesterday in the evening after spending pretty much the whole day travelling in the bus from Queenstown to Kaikoura. Kiwi Experience bus doesn't go to Christchurch at the moment (due to th earthquakes they have there...), so we just dropped some people off at the airport, but didn't get a chance to see the city. Normally there would be one night stop in Christchurch. So I only went to the supermarket in the evening and that was it.
Today, in the morning, we head out to the sea to look for some dolphins!! The sea was really rough and they warned us before hand that there might be some seasickness due to the large waves and wind. I was really worried. But when we got going I was actually fine, think that travelsickness pill I took helped a bit. I was sitting outside the boat and the waves were really big, but it was kind of like being on a roller coaster :) Then after a while, the captain got a call from an whale watching boat that they spotted the dolphins and gave us the direction to get there. Finally, we found them!! I was a bit worried as we wouldn't have gotten a full refund if we couldn't find the dolphins. It's not even guanranteed that you'll get to swim with them, it depends on their behaviour. If they are friendly, it's fine. And we were lucky as we got to go in!!
We were pretty much covered in wetsuits, from head to toe: hoodies, wetsuit, jacket, gloves, socks and flippers. Oh yeah, and snorkels and goggles. But the water was still cold. You can imagine, it's winter time and it's the Pacific Ocean... :D It wasn't actually that bad once you got in to the water, the wetsuit definately helped. I can tell you that Pacific Ocean tastes bad, very salty.. yagh! There was around 50 dolphins around us and they were coming from all directions. It was AWESOME!!! So surreal though, they were swimming only like 1 metre away from you!!! It was so cool!! And when you put your face down, you could see them swimming right under you, it was like being in one HUGE aquarium, looking at them through the glass (except you weren't, they were actually there with you!!). It was probably one of the coolest experiences in my whole life. I absolutely love dolphins, always have, so it was a bid deal for me to actually swim with them <3 They were really cute too :))) And wild, not trained, not fed by people or anything.
But here's when the trouble started for me. Floating in the water holding your face in the water watching down while huge waves where rocking you was not good. I got really, really seasick out there... Got a bit of a panic attact there too as the waves were just taking you anywhere and I started coughing and got some of that nasty salty water in my mouth. With the goggles you couldn't breath through your nose which was really distracting as well. But I got over it. Then it was just the nausea I had to deal with. I think we were in the water for about 30min or so and then we got on the boat again. We started following the dolphins, so that people can take pictures, but I was really feeling bad at this moment, so I didn't even get my camera out. I was just holding my little bucket in my hands like my life was depending on it. Once one other guy started puking, that was it for me, had to empty my stomach too in that little bucket I now call George. I had George the second as well. Felt sooooo soooo bad all the way back... We were suppose to change our clothes in the boat, but I couldn't go in to get my clothes so I was freezing in that wetsuit all the way back to shore. When we got back I felt a lot better and got to take a hot shower at the dolphin incounter centre.
So all an' all, awesome experience, I higly recommend doing it if it's something you've always wanted to do :) I'm still a bit nauseas and my bed will be probably rocking for the next few nights, but it was worth it.
That's all for now, I still have tomorrow to spend in Kaikoura, then I'm off again on Monday morning with the Kiwi bus. Going to Wellington for one night, then Taupo and finally back to Auckland!! It will be nice to see some familiar faces again in Auckland :) Oh speaking of familiar faces, I have to tell you one more thing:
Even though New Zealand is quite big country, like the distances are quite long from the top part of the country till the bottom (on both islands) and there are lots of places to visit, I still manage to run in to familiar faces all along the way! Today I met this women in Kaikoura that I met in Dunedin, we went to the Wildlife tour together. Then in Wanaka, I met this lady I first met in Auckland somewhere back in April. We were staying in same hostel then and again in Wanaka :D There's one girl I've seen in 3 different cities, Auckland, Wanaka and again in Dunedin :))) Funny coincidence :)) And I also run in to a German girl in Franz Josef that I met like a month before that in Waitomo! There are so many places and people travel in their own pace so I find it really odd to run in to these people over and over again :))
Ok, now I really need to go. I'm running out of time on the internet... as my laptop is still broken. Couldn't get it fixed my self... need to find a repairman, probably in Auckland once I get there. So no pictures for now because of that.
See ya later alligators!! You'll hear from me again once I have something to report about :))) <3
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