We leave our campsite and drive into town as I am going to swim with the dolphins. That is to try and find dolphins that want to swim with me.

The dolphins here are the Hector dolphins and are not only the smallest salt water dolphins coming in about 3 feet in length. They are also the most endangered dolphins on the planet and number about 700 – 1000. They are found only around the bay and offshore at a number of sites.

Anyway we suit up in our neoprene and set off to look for them.

We find some and once they establish that they want us in the water with them we get in and bob about in our 5mm thick suits. The one is me and a crowd of strangers as Maggie has decided to not do this trip. Cold and swimming in the open ocean is not for her.

Anyway we get to bew inspected by the dolphins who swim around us for a while before I guess getting bored and heading off again.

It is special because they get to within a foot of me at one stage. We are warned not to try and touch them to avoid spreading any germs from our hands.

There is a dolphin right beside me, honest. It is a GoPro so it has an extremely wide angle lens.

Lots of edgits bobbing about waiting for the dolphins to not get bored and swim away.

So out we get from the water and search out some more.

This time though we see a couple who com right up to the boat when we get in the water they just bugger off.

So it goes for the rest of the trip and after a couple of hours everyone is getting very cold so we head back to shore.

From there we go get some fish and chips to warm us up and then head to our next destination.

We head down the coast towards Temuru.

On the way we pass the Lake Ellesmere again and this time stop to take a few pics of the black swans which are numerous.

 

Then onwards through the countryside until we link up with highway one.

This runs sort of along the coast but the overriding view is of cattle farms. They have heavy duty watering systems and I guess they need it to ensure a plentiful supply of top quality grass.

I didn’t get any photos of the sprinkler so these are from another day.

The road is good and straight so we make good progress.

Once we arrive it is into the local holiday camp for a shower and hook up to the electricity to recharge the battery.

I much prefer the wildcamping or as they refer to it here freedom camping.24/11