Kaikoura

We left Dunedin later than I wanted and then stopped in Palmerston at a small Bird and Butterfly Encounter place. What a lovely spot! There was a sulphur crested cockatoo inside who really likes men so quickly got onto Adrian’s shoulder. There were lots more birds of all types including budgies, lorikeets, chickens, ducks etc, rabbits, and fish. There was also a sulphur crested cockatoo outside who didn’t like people very much but “called” me over to scratch his head. We spent a long time there looking at the “fish and wings” and talking to the owners.

On to Moeraki to see the Boulders – someone had told us that it was very expensive to get in and so were pleasantly surprised to find it was only $2 per adult. What interesting stones!

After a lunch stop at Temuka we arrived at Kaikoura to much more luxurious accommodation than we had in Dunedin. After a quick walk around, we got some more of our favourite blue cod for a late dinner.

Wednesday morning dawned overcast but we decided to book on a swim with the dolphins encounter. Adrian and the boys had to share a single swim; in other words, only one of them at a time could go into the water. It was awesome according to them. The dolphins were fascinated with the boys - probably because they are smaller than the adults who go swimming. Ross and Colin both had the dolphins swim up so close to them that the dolphins actually touched them. Adrian had them swimming in pairs about half a metre from him. On board the boat it was just as awesome as there were about 300 dusky dolphins in the pod and they were almost showing off for us – jumping, surfing and turning somersaults. Between the boat and the dolphins moving it was quite difficult to take photos but I did the best I could and we also bought a disposable underwater camera so we’ll see how those photos turn out. It was just so exciting seeing those beautiful creatures close up! There were a fair number of mothers with calves and these babies were also jumping out the water.