Swimming with dolphins in the Bay of Islands
August 7, 1998
It's my birthday today! And in order to bring in my 29th year on a good note, I treated myself to an amazing adventure - I swam with dolphins in the Bay of Islands!
I am currently in Paihia which is in the Northland territory of New Zealand. Although it is winter here, this area stays relatively warm, relative being the key word here. For this Texas girl, it was pretty bloody cold.
Anyway, this morning I took a trip designed to see and possibly swim with dolphins, but no guarantees. We get the spiel - they are wild, they are not fed, there is no guarantee they will have any interest in us whatsoever or that we will even find any, BUT as there are so many out here, the chances are pretty decent. And we're off...
We sight a pod within an hour of departure. They are feeding so we can only watch for about an hour as they rise up and dive down below, jump occasionally and play toss with some unlucky fish. The tour operators seemed very diligent in attempting to assure that the dolphins' natural feeding patterns are not disturbed and we were also informed that if there are any babies among the pod, swimming with them will be out of the question as well. After an hour or so, they are no longer feeding and our guide deems that it is o.k. to jump in and swim if we are keen to. Let me just tell you, what an amazing experience this was! Let me also just tell you how incredibly COLD it was! Wet suits helped and the pure rush of adrenalin couldn't have hurt either, but the water was registering at around 50 degrees or so and BRRRRR!!!
But the dolphins were beautiful. Their high-pitched whistles and clicks could be heard before I could see them and then, suddenly, they were right next to me! Within inches of my outstretched fingers. They swam in circles around us, jumped high into the air and came splashing down next to us, rolled over and looked at us curiously in passing. They were magnificent. They were breath-taking. They are the most beautiful things I have ever seen and it was a true gift and privilege to have shared their world for just a short while. What an amazing birthday!
While in Pahia, I stayed at the Pipi Patch, a cool, friendly hostel with deals on heaps of day trips.
Both Dolphin Discoveries and Dolphin Encounters run tours out of Paihia. Both charged about $70NZ for a trip which lasted about half the day. Money well spent, in my book.