Today we decided to splurge--with mixed results--and go out on the open sea (we got about 22km out at our furthest) to swim with the dolphins. At $130.00 NZD per person, it was pretty dear, but we felt that if we got to swim with the dolphins it would be a once in a lifetime experience. We found many sea creatures today--including an extremely rare sighting of a manta ray--but alas, we were unable to go swimming with the dolphin pod we found, because they had their babies with them. It is illegal for anyone in NZ, to enter the water when the dolphin pups are present, because it leads to accidents later. The whole idea is that dolphins are excited to play with the boat, but they lose all control when they get to swim with humans. Swimming with us is like a drug to them, and once the young have experienced that, they will even leave the protective side of their mothers to go after speed boats that they hear--often with disastrous results. By staying out of the water when dolphin babies are present, we ensure their future safety...but it STINKS, because we wanted to get in there with them so much!!
The day started out bright and clear and stayed that way. The thermometer peaked at 31 degrees C, but we brought plenty of sunscreen and stayed in the shade of the boat's interior whenever we could. Below you can see the view out the stern of the boat as we were getting ready to depart; just to the left you can see the remains of the volcano named Maunganui, while just slightly to the right of center you can see a cruise ship in the harbour.
For those of you who need glasses, the aforementioned cruise ship.
On the way out of the harbour, we saw the wreckage caused by last season's monsoons (the same ones that have been wreaking havoc in Australia.) The driftwood you see at the bottom of the mudslide, are actually trees that were over a hundred years old. The captain of the boat seemed pretty upset as he retold the tale to us.
Below you see the resort town of Mt. Maunganui, with the famous surf beach to the left.
The first marine life we encountered--other than the small skip-jack tuna--was a pod of three killer whales. The captain tells us that these orca are relatively new to the area, because their prey have moved here only recently due to the warming of the water by el nina. He tells us that the male in this pod, characteristic of other pods, feeds and swims about 50-60 ft away from his mate and her calf.
Here we see the mother and her baby following close behind as they feed on their favourite food.
This was the only time we saw the mother and father orca so close together. He is recognizable by the slightly bulbous tip of his dorsal fin.
Finally! Dolphins!
About an hour after leaving the orca, a charter fisherman radioed us about this pod, and so we arrived on the scene, about 20km from shore, to be greeted by antics like the ones below;
Above you can see just one of the approximate ten babies we saw with this pod. According to the captain, who is a world-travelled marine biologist along with five of the six crew members, female dolphins mate, on average, seventy times a day--upon her initiation. She indicates her interest to the male by rolling on her back on the surface of the water. With all of that practice, however, she only seems to get pregnant, on average, once every three years! That tells you how big this pod is--and fertile--considering the amount of babies present. Alas, it was due to this pod's hyper fertility that we were not allowed to swim with the darlings.
Below we see another shot of these beauties! According to the captain, the dolphins have been known to change course from as far away as one km in order to intercept the Dolphin Safari boat, because of all the fun they have with the human swimmers. He says that, with their hypersensitive hearing abilities, they are able to discern the unique sound of his twin diesels over all the other boats in the harbour. The team actually does these tours in the summer only, while conducting their research off the profits they make each summer, in the winter.
Below you can see one of the adolescents as he completely clears the water and his/her nose is just re-entering the surface. According to the captain, both genders show equal affection and propensity to play and show off. One of the performers even drew an exclamation from him, as the creature launched itself about four feet into the air three consecutive times and twisted in the air as he flew on each jump! Unfortunately I was at the stern while this was happening at the bow. Cailin, however, saw the whole thing, and I heard the captain shouting as if he were a little boy on Christmas morning.
After playing with the dolphins from the boat, we regretfully turned for the harbour. On the way back, however, the captain made an exclamation of surprise, cut the motors and yelled up to the spotters, asking if they had seen what he had. Receiving only questions from them on the roof, he pointed to his left and said "On the port, in the water, do you see it?" At this point he maneuvered the boat nearer to the point he had seen, and this was all that could be seen;
We stuck around and watched this shadow, and sure enough, the captain was right; the Manta Ray that had only been seen once before, three years prior, was within ten feet of our boat! It circled lazily in the mid-day heat, languorously feeding on the plankton, until its wing tip pierced the surface;
The tour boat, a twin-diesel fiberglass-hulled catamaran, was originally owned by the NZ America's Cup people, who employed it as a weather boat. They would send it out to the farthest reaches of the day's race course where it would provide minute to minute weather condition details to the race conveners. As such, this craft had to be extremely seaworthy as well as fast enough to get to the furthest reaches of the course early enough in the day. It's top speed, when on plane, is 30 knots, but for our use we only hit a cruising speed of 12 knots. Many people, because of the 10 ft swells on the ocean during our trip, got seasick and didn't enjoy themselves at all. Poor Cal!
Ai Carumba!!
One of the neat features to this boat, that the captain designed in himself, can be seen in the picture below. That aluminum contraption that you see is a kind of outrigger from which two swimmers can be towed, while the dolphins swim along side and interact with those being towed. The towed person is to hum a song or laugh in their snorkel, so that the dolphins react and become excited that you're trying to communicate and play with them--which is what they live for, according to our source. What's really neat about the design of the tow bars on this boat, is that it allows the dolphins to get much closer to the swimmer, because it is completely away from the propellers. Another feature that gives the swimmer more time in the water, and makes things easier for the operators, is that with his unique setup, you don't have to stop the boat when changing out swim groups. The aluminum ladder, which you see in the retracted position, is also the captain's design. All these things he has learned through trial and error, as he has studied marine life over the years all over the globe.
Maori warrior and his friend greet us as we re-enter Tauranga Harbour.
Below you can see the various cranes on the loading/unloading docks on the shore-front of Tauranga.
Tauranga Harbour is New Zealand's largest export dock, handling the most tonnage, by far, of any sea port on the North and South Islands. Above you can see "salties" from many different nations, while below you can see one of those mobile cranes carrying a shipping container to its proper destination. This guy was just whipping around at incredible speeds in the ship yard. It was pretty exciting to watch!
Tauranga Harbour, Tauranga, NZ
The end of a tiring day of Marine Life watching.
On the way home we saw this interesting hotel. It's located directly at the foot of Mt. Maunganui.
"When danger reared its' ugly head, sir Robin bravely turned and fled."
Yea, THAT oughta work! Plug your nose, it won't hit ya so hard!
Run! It's the child-eating sea monster!
Sadly, one of the ducklings was not fast enough, and was fully consumed by the great and terrible beast!!
For the life of him, he couldn't make a right angle!
Cosy Corner Family Park, Mt. Maunganui, NZ
Mischief, with the right idea as the day expires.
Good Night All!
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