I see a dolphin Pod

TOURING NEW ZEALAND: Today we went on an organised ‘swimming with dolphins’ trip – a four hour tour around the Bay of Islands. While there was no promise that we would end up swimming with dolphins, anticipation was high. All that could be guaranteed is that we were going out on a boat where dolphins are very often seen.

Brita, who works on the ticket desk told us that for instance there would be no swimming if we had to go too far out to sea to find them as the water would be too rough. Also, if there were babies in the pod, swimming would be barred as it would be too disturbing to the young. Apparently, they have very little body fat and need to suckle several times an hour to survive.

Clearly a little weary of tourists who book swimming with dolphins tours only to later announce that they can’t swim – which happens surprisingly often – Brita tells me: “A lot of people have this strange mythical image of what it will be like once they get out in the boat. They might have seen people swimming with dolphins with a panpipes soundtrack on TV and think that’s what it will be like for them – but these are totally wild creatures so it isn’t like that at all.

"Others might have very little swimming experience but think they’ll be fine because they jumped over some waves in Spain a few years ago, but if you really want to swim with dolphins, it takes a lot of effort as they are extremely fast swimmers.”

About an hour later out in the water, we come across our first dolphins – the bottlenose variety. With around 20 people on our boat, there is suddenly a lot of shrieking and grabbing for cameras. The swell of the waves causes arms and legs to go flying and it’s everyone for themselves as we all try to steady ourselves to get some precious photos. Unfortunately, we are too far out at sea and the water is too rough for us to swim, plus a baby swimming alongside its mother has also been seen, Tim our skipper tells us.

There is a collective groan, but secretly, being someone who has only managed to jump over a few waves recently, I’m happy to miss an opportunity to make a fool of myself. And as for believing in all that dolphin mythology, that’s for other people too. I knew that that 30 or so dolphins that were speeding alongside our boat weren’t doing it out of love for us humans, but because they were getting a pull or push from the moving boat as it pushed water ahead of it and created a drag effect behind. It did look like they were having fun though – a few of them did high jumps out of the water and back-flipped back into it creating a big splash. Perhaps they did like us a little bit after all.

For the next hour, the pod continues to swim with our boat. While after around ten minutes, the shrieking from the boat died down, one American woman continued screaming with joy and pointing every time a dolphin appeared. What is it with people and dolphins?

Before we head back to shore, Tim kills off a bit more of that dolphin mythology. “Some people naively think they can grab a fin and ride on a dolphins back, but that’s not possible with wild ones like this. Even if you had been able to go in the water, you would have had to obey strict Department of Conservation rules and wouldn’t have been allowed to touch them as you could pass on human germs that might give them some disease, or you might even catch something from them.”

While nobody seemed to feel short changed by not getting a swim with Flipper, for the American woman at least, as we headed back to shore, excitement was still running high. While we were having a quiet cup of coffee in calmer waters, she demanded at least that she took a swim, even if it was without dolphins. But after gingerly sticking one foot in the water, she called it off, complaining that the sea was too cold. Tourists, eh? There is no pleasing some of them.

By Mary Salmon