Dolphin swimming and whale riding
Door: Pieternel
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Pieternel
23 Maart 2008 | Nieuw Zeeland, Christchurch
Hi everyone!
How are ya? (that’s the way Kiwis start almost every conversation; e-mail, telephone call, supermarket visit etc.)
Another 10 exciting days have passed, so time for a quick update.
Last weekend Ragna (fellow uni student) and I finally found the time to meet up. Was about time after being in NZ for almost three months already. (yep...half way...don’t wanna think too much about it). Together with Inge, a girl Ragna had met at salsa 3 weeks before, we had an awesome and fun-filled weekend in Kaikoura; wildlife capital of New Zealand. Kaikoura is Maori for ‘meal of crayfish’ (kai: food and koura: crayfish) and it is famous for whale watching, dolphin swimming, seal swimming, albatrosses etc etc. The reason for the abundance of marine life in this area is the fact of two different currents (warm and cold) meeting each other and continental shelf formation. From land , the shelf slopes gradually to 90 m and then plunges to a depth of over 800m. The southerly current hits the continental shelf and brings up the nutrients from the ocean floor creating a awesome meal for all marine life as you can imagine.
Friday morning we had to get up early to get ready for our dolphin swimming trip. After some doubts on my side about whether this all is dolphin friendly etc I decided that this probably was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Furthermore there is only company in Kaikoura who is allowed to run these tours and they are under strict supervision of DOC (department of conservation), so I figured it probably wouldn’t harm the dolphins too much. We got geared up in our charming looking wetsuits and then drove to the harbour from where the boat left. After about 30 min we saw the first Dusky dolphins (yes, a different species than the Hector dolphins), the most acrobatic species of dolphin and they were eager to prove this to us. Backflip, salto and crazy jumps followed one after another. Very cute and pretty amazing! When we reached a pod of about 400 dolphins (not lying, check the video!) it was time for us to get ready to enter the water. I have to admit that I was quite scared to enter the open water with so many wild animals around me, but figured that had there never been an accident before, it wasn’t likely to happen now either. And it was pretty d*mn cool!!! Haha!! We were told to make noise through our snorkels, dive and swim in a circle around the dolphin. Some of them got sooooo close, it was amazing!!! I had two who really had a circling game with me, was such a funny experience. After about 6 swims (we had to climb back on the boat every time to catch up with the pod again) we had the opportunity to just watch their acrobatic behaviour from the boat, some of them were showing off big time! Haha!
The next morning we were booked in for the seal swim, so again an early rise to get all good-looking in our wetsuits again and off on a somewhat smaller boat to find some seals to play with. The seals were really really cool! There were quite a few of them, including some babies just sunbathing on the rocks, very cute! The ones in the water were at first just cruising along in the water, but when they got used to us some of them got really close and had a curious look at us. In the end they were just floating around in the middle of the group of swimmers, very funny. One came real close and looked me in the eyes for quite a long time, until I was the one who looked away, haha! Another great experience to add to the list!
Later that afternoon Ragna and I (Inge had had enough of the ‘almost sea-sickness’ for a bit) went whale watching. The type of whale that is almost always seen in these waters is the sperm whale (‘potvis’ for the dutchies). This whale can reach up to 18 metres and has the biggest brain of any animal ever. They are good hunters and can easily swallow a 4.5 metre long shark. But I got most worried, and was extremely happy not to find out this information before my swimming adventures, when I heard their favourite dish is the giant squid, who can reach up to 12 metres long and weigh 180 kilos... This squid also lives in the Kaikoura Canyon, but has never been recorded alive (not even after fierce attempts of researchers), only stranded on the beach. They live in depths of 700 metres and more, so I guess I shouldn’t have been worried about meeting them anyways during my lovely swimming adventures, but still.... But back to the whales, because they are pretty amazing of course! You don’t see a lot of the whale, only about 5/10%, but the prettiest is when they dive and the tail comes out of the water. They can dive to a depth of over 900 metres and stay under for about 2 hours. So every time when we had seen a tail going under there was no use in hanging around, but we had to find a new whale again. We saw about 7 of them, so it was quite a successful trip.
After dinner Ragna and Inge left again, but I had decided to stay for another night. The next morning I went for a 3.5 hour walk around the Kaikoura Peninsula, the weather wasn’t that great, but it was still a really nice walk and at the start of it was a seal colony, of which one seal had just entered the car park and decided to go for a rest under a large jeep... Pretty funny! After the walk it was time to head home to Christchurch again, but my oh my, what a great weekend it had been!
And as if that wasn’t enough Ragna emailed me on Monday telling me that she had Thursday and Friday off, so she could join me to the Jack Johnson concert on Thursday night and then a day trip to Hanmer Springs on Friday. The concert was really cool! And then Friday we drove to Hanmer Springs, about 1,5hrs away from Christchurch and famous for its hot pools, so the rest of the day we soaked and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day together with Mariska (fellow student). Was sooo nice!! Saturday morning Ragna had to leave early and I went for a 3.5 hour walk around Hanmer Springs in the drizzle, but it was really nice, beautiful autumn colours and views.
Today I had to finish some stuff (went into work on Easter Sunday!), so I can leave work behind for two weeks. I am going on one of our Adventure Odyssey trips, a multi-activity (rafting, kayaking, caving etc) tour up to Auckland. I’ll be carrying out some research and assignments during this trip, but it’s also a reward for all the work I’ve done so far, so that’s really cool! I can guarantee another long story in two weeks time! My last two weeks of being 22 years old....
Cheerssss xx Pieternel
How are ya? (that’s the way Kiwis start almost every conversation; e-mail, telephone call, supermarket visit etc.)
Another 10 exciting days have passed, so time for a quick update.
Last weekend Ragna (fellow uni student) and I finally found the time to meet up. Was about time after being in NZ for almost three months already. (yep...half way...don’t wanna think too much about it). Together with Inge, a girl Ragna had met at salsa 3 weeks before, we had an awesome and fun-filled weekend in Kaikoura; wildlife capital of New Zealand. Kaikoura is Maori for ‘meal of crayfish’ (kai: food and koura: crayfish) and it is famous for whale watching, dolphin swimming, seal swimming, albatrosses etc etc. The reason for the abundance of marine life in this area is the fact of two different currents (warm and cold) meeting each other and continental shelf formation. From land , the shelf slopes gradually to 90 m and then plunges to a depth of over 800m. The southerly current hits the continental shelf and brings up the nutrients from the ocean floor creating a awesome meal for all marine life as you can imagine.
Friday morning we had to get up early to get ready for our dolphin swimming trip. After some doubts on my side about whether this all is dolphin friendly etc I decided that this probably was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Furthermore there is only company in Kaikoura who is allowed to run these tours and they are under strict supervision of DOC (department of conservation), so I figured it probably wouldn’t harm the dolphins too much. We got geared up in our charming looking wetsuits and then drove to the harbour from where the boat left. After about 30 min we saw the first Dusky dolphins (yes, a different species than the Hector dolphins), the most acrobatic species of dolphin and they were eager to prove this to us. Backflip, salto and crazy jumps followed one after another. Very cute and pretty amazing! When we reached a pod of about 400 dolphins (not lying, check the video!) it was time for us to get ready to enter the water. I have to admit that I was quite scared to enter the open water with so many wild animals around me, but figured that had there never been an accident before, it wasn’t likely to happen now either. And it was pretty d*mn cool!!! Haha!! We were told to make noise through our snorkels, dive and swim in a circle around the dolphin. Some of them got sooooo close, it was amazing!!! I had two who really had a circling game with me, was such a funny experience. After about 6 swims (we had to climb back on the boat every time to catch up with the pod again) we had the opportunity to just watch their acrobatic behaviour from the boat, some of them were showing off big time! Haha!
The next morning we were booked in for the seal swim, so again an early rise to get all good-looking in our wetsuits again and off on a somewhat smaller boat to find some seals to play with. The seals were really really cool! There were quite a few of them, including some babies just sunbathing on the rocks, very cute! The ones in the water were at first just cruising along in the water, but when they got used to us some of them got really close and had a curious look at us. In the end they were just floating around in the middle of the group of swimmers, very funny. One came real close and looked me in the eyes for quite a long time, until I was the one who looked away, haha! Another great experience to add to the list!
Later that afternoon Ragna and I (Inge had had enough of the ‘almost sea-sickness’ for a bit) went whale watching. The type of whale that is almost always seen in these waters is the sperm whale (‘potvis’ for the dutchies). This whale can reach up to 18 metres and has the biggest brain of any animal ever. They are good hunters and can easily swallow a 4.5 metre long shark. But I got most worried, and was extremely happy not to find out this information before my swimming adventures, when I heard their favourite dish is the giant squid, who can reach up to 12 metres long and weigh 180 kilos... This squid also lives in the Kaikoura Canyon, but has never been recorded alive (not even after fierce attempts of researchers), only stranded on the beach. They live in depths of 700 metres and more, so I guess I shouldn’t have been worried about meeting them anyways during my lovely swimming adventures, but still.... But back to the whales, because they are pretty amazing of course! You don’t see a lot of the whale, only about 5/10%, but the prettiest is when they dive and the tail comes out of the water. They can dive to a depth of over 900 metres and stay under for about 2 hours. So every time when we had seen a tail going under there was no use in hanging around, but we had to find a new whale again. We saw about 7 of them, so it was quite a successful trip.
After dinner Ragna and Inge left again, but I had decided to stay for another night. The next morning I went for a 3.5 hour walk around the Kaikoura Peninsula, the weather wasn’t that great, but it was still a really nice walk and at the start of it was a seal colony, of which one seal had just entered the car park and decided to go for a rest under a large jeep... Pretty funny! After the walk it was time to head home to Christchurch again, but my oh my, what a great weekend it had been!
And as if that wasn’t enough Ragna emailed me on Monday telling me that she had Thursday and Friday off, so she could join me to the Jack Johnson concert on Thursday night and then a day trip to Hanmer Springs on Friday. The concert was really cool! And then Friday we drove to Hanmer Springs, about 1,5hrs away from Christchurch and famous for its hot pools, so the rest of the day we soaked and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day together with Mariska (fellow student). Was sooo nice!! Saturday morning Ragna had to leave early and I went for a 3.5 hour walk around Hanmer Springs in the drizzle, but it was really nice, beautiful autumn colours and views.
Today I had to finish some stuff (went into work on Easter Sunday!), so I can leave work behind for two weeks. I am going on one of our Adventure Odyssey trips, a multi-activity (rafting, kayaking, caving etc) tour up to Auckland. I’ll be carrying out some research and assignments during this trip, but it’s also a reward for all the work I’ve done so far, so that’s really cool! I can guarantee another long story in two weeks time! My last two weeks of being 22 years old....
Cheerssss xx Pieternel
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23 Maart 2008 - 10:48
Marte:
Haa pep!!
Gaaf man, wat je allemaal doet daar! Geniet er nog maar lekker van, want voor je het weet is het voorbij...De tijd hier in Thailand gaat ook zooo snel, nog maar 3 maandjes:(!
Heel veel plezier met je trip de aankomende twee weken!
Heel veel liefs!!
xxx -
25 Maart 2008 - 05:37
Lou:
Te gek allemaal! Dit waren de foto's waarop ik zat te wachten :) En nu weer op een trip, hoe relaxed! Ik ga onze kletsuurtjes wel missen hoor...;) Noosa was ook erg geslaagd, een echte mini-vakantie (smaakt heel erg naar meer:)!!) Och nog maar een paar dagen en dan is het al weer weekend! Hele fijne vakantie/research trip en we spreken wel weer! Dikke kus, lou -
27 Maart 2008 - 15:05
Marieke & Jan:
He Pep,
Wat gaaf zeg !! Kaikoura is bekend voor ons, maar ik heb toen geen foto gemaakt van de vergelijking met de boot en de walvis. Echt gigantisch...
Wij zijn ook weer bezig met de voorbereiding voor de transsiberian express, erg leuk !! Geniet van de mooie dingen daar,
Xx uit Boxmeer -
27 Maart 2008 - 21:29
Dien:
hey
k moet bekennen dat k alleen de plaatjes en daardoor ook de laatste paragraaf gezien heb, de rest komt morgen, eerst slape!
Tof dat je zo je laatste weken als 22er kunt doorbrengen! DE MAX!!! ik ga juist extra kantooruren ipv outdoorsy uren draaien deze en komende week... en vooral slapen dit weekend!! kan niet wachten :P
xx -
27 Maart 2008 - 23:19
Malou:
Wow, die thermale baden zien er daar een stuk beter uit! Hier bestaat het uit een zwembad met bruin (!) water! Niet echt uitnodigend haha... Weet je al wat je gaat kiezen voor het 4de jaar? Of nog niet mee bezig? Fijne vakantie, mail je snel! xx -
01 April 2008 - 19:10
Dien:
zo eindelijk weer es puf om toch nog je verhaal te lezen, beetje later dan verwacht dus. echt super joh die trips van je! klinkt geweldig.
ik heb hier dus lekker overgewerkt, vandaag ook en morgen zeker tot 11 uur voor de preview.. maar door al t gestress en geregel voor preview en opening ben k wel gemotiveerd dus das alleen maar goed he. nu maar zien dat mn placement report af komt
tis echt n mega ingewikkelde tentoonstelling met mega veel bruikleengevers en sponsors die allemaal geinventariseerd, verzekerd, gecontacteerd EN uitgemolken moeten worden! dus ben na hard werken met iedereen heel benieuwd naar de opening vrijdag!
xx -
07 April 2008 - 15:00
Malou:
Hey meis! Hier is het nog 7 april, maar bij jou zal het inmiddels al wel 8 april zijn of misschien wel 9!!?! Van harte gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag!! Is wel raar he in het buitenland jarig zijn, maar is voor jou ook vast niet de eerste keer denk ik.. Nou, hoop dat je er een leuk feestje van maakt! Ik drink er hier in Huaraz een (of meer;)) op jou! Xx -
08 April 2008 - 17:29
Wilma:
GEFELICITEERD !!! -
08 April 2008 - 18:53
Frank En Nahylda:
Ha Pieternel, van harte gefeliciteerd. Wat een prachtige ervaringen en avonturen maak jij weer mee, super, we genieten met je mee..Nahy is inmiddels met verlof en mama uit Venezuela is al hier... nog max. 5 weken, we zien ernaar uit, je hoort het wel, groetjes en knuffel!
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