Goodbye Nelson, Hello Flying Kiwi #3

I spent three days in Nelson before I hopped back on the Flying Kiwi bus. It was great to be able to see my friends again (even though a few were a bit confused because I had said goodbyes in case I didn’t make it back) and have a bit of time to gather my thoughts in “solo-travel mode” before spending a week with a busload of people! I spent the days wandering town, swimming in the Maitai River (at my favorite swimming hole, of course), catching up online at the library and blogging. The evenings I spent with climber friends. We had our usual Thursday night climb followed by drinks at the Free House (complete with adorable puppy!)

That night it was decided that we would return the next night (where else would we go?) in “fancy dress,” just for fun! It’s always fun when you can get a whole group of people on board to dress up!

We looked pretty good for a bunch of climbers, so naturally had to have a modeling shoot.

South Island Road Trip with Louise: Dolphin Swim!

One of the last things on Lou’s list of things to do before she left the country (and certainly on my list, but I had a little more time to check it off) was going to Kaikoura to participate in the infamous dolphin swim. After we’d had enough climbing on our last day, we returned the hired bouldering mat and headed for Kaikoura. We caught a glimpse of a gorgeous sunset on the drive in to town and stopped at a car park in town to cook and eat our dinner. We found a nice spot to sleep in the car again that night (since it was going to be quite a short night!) and wound up having a stunning view of the moon shining over the ocean, hanging so bright and low in the sky it almost looked like a hazy sunset.

Louise and I, ready to go!

A pre-5am wake-up is not ideal for anyone (especially for the second time in a week) but what we experienced that morning was well worth the effort of getting out of our cozy car! We got ourselves together and headed to Dolphin Encounters for our scheduled 5:30 dolphin swim. We were outfitted with wetsuits, jackets, hoods, flippers, snorkels, and masks, and then escorted to a small auditorium to watch the safety briefing video. 

The video explained what we would encounter out in the water, and mentioned a few ways to get the dolphins’ attention. We would be swimming with Dusky Dolphins – some of the world’s smallest – out in the wild. We were informed the dolphins were not trained and that the boat took us into an area where the dolphins pass through on their daily migration.