Goodbye South Island

We arrived in Picton in good time and the Top Ten Holiday Park organised our dolphin watching tour for the following day.   We were treated to a stunning sunset.

Next morning we walked to the Dolphin Encounter base along the marina and over what is called the coat-hanger bridge.

We found that we were the only two who were just watching, everybody else on our tour was swimming with dolphins.   The success rate with watching dolphins is 95% but with swimming only 80% because they are only allowed to swim with certain species of dolphin, the bottlenose and the common dolphin but not with the Hector’s dolphin or the Orca.   The guides also have to assess the mood of the dolphins, e.g. if there is a new calf then it is not suitable to swim with the dolphins.

Our group was all kitted out with wet suits and shown how to use the snorkels and how to make sounds to communicate with the dolphins.  Among them was an 11 year old girl who reminded me of Kate Southworth, one of my very first guides.   She was the first to spot the Hector’s dolphins and later offered to help our guide make and distribute hot drinks.

 

We saw a pod of Hector’s dolphins which are the smallest and rarest dolphin species – only about 1m long.   They seemed to enjoy the novelty of a boat making bubbles and did a couple of turns past us and at some stages swam right in front of the boat.

Unfortunately we didn’t come across any other dolphins so the rest of our group could choose to book for another swim or get the swim part of their fee back.   We were quite satisfied, however although it would have been fun watching the others interacting with dolphins and making funny noises.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Picton and catching up on our reading.

The next day, Friday the 18th January, was our last day on the South Island and we caught the ferry back to Wellington at 10.30. 

Overnight in Palmerston North and then back to Napier on Saturday.   Our holiday is almost over and it is time to start making plans for returning the motorhome and getting back home.