After we leave Christchurch, Cam and I are driving up to the North Island and I'm flying home from Auckland right before Christmas. I'm really happy to be going home to family and friends, but sad to leave New Zealand and also sad to leave this blog. It's been fun to share my experiences and think about them in a story telling way :)
But more about that in "less than two months" when I sign off one last time.
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| Flying past Kaikoura on my way to Waiheke Island These are the beautiful glacial braided rivers of Canterbury! (Stay tuned for that post) |
This post is actually a follow up from my previous one. I mentioned at the end of my post about Lions, Tigers, and Sheep (Oh my) that I was going to be swimming with seals the following weekend. Well I went up on Labour Day Monday and we did it. It was definitely cold, but it was so worth it and SO much fun.
The seal swim was up in Kaikoura about two and a half hours north of Christchurch. I had only been to Kaikoura once (!) and it was actually about this time last year. I just drove through with two coworkers on our way to Golden Bay, got a coffee, and kept going. I remember thinking it was stunning, and I knew I would have to go back at some point to actually check Kaikoura off my bucket list.
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| Kaikoura last year - not my best photo, but you get it |
Luckily I'm addicted to instagram and several NZ Instagrammers including Youngadventuress and ChristchurchNZ have been really promoting these excursions recently. I asked my friend Jess if she wanted to try it and then she, I, and two other friends signed up.
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| And here begins all the photos that are not my own.. Sucker for instagram advertising apparently. Oops. |
We got so lucky with the weather and Iona and I had an awesome drive up north - stopping to eat brunch at an outdoor cafe - and made it to Kaikoura right on time. We met up with Jess and her friend, Naja, and thats when the fun started.
The guides at Seal Swim Kaikoura sized us up and gave us really serious wet suits to wear. Those things are HARD to get on. Iona, being the tiny lady that she is, had to wear THREE wet suits. And I thought my life was hard.
Once we were all suited up, they instructed us to "strut down the street to the van". Unfortunately they also told us not to bring any phones or cameras unless they were waterproof, so I missed the opportunity to document us in our wetsuits, strutting through Kaikoura.
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| Maybe that's us on the boat? Side note - Cam and I watched Castaway the night before and I made him promise not to get stranded on any island when I left the house that morning .... and then I found myself on this boat... |
On the way to the boat, which would take us to the seal swim area, they told us a little bit about the nature and history of our excursion, which I really liked. Turns out that the seals we have in Kaikoura (look at me, taking ownership of New Zealand's wildlife) are New Zealand fur seals, which means they have two layers of fur to keep them warm. He said its basically like they're wearing a wet suit AND a sleeping bag. This allows them to go 200 m below the surface of the water. They overheat out of the water, so they have to go deep under water to regulate their temperature and they evolved to do that at night so that they don't have to go thaaat deep - 30 m I believe. (I think this is what he said, but I can't remember exactly why they have to go down at night). At any rate, his point was that while the fur seals look really lazy, they actually just do their active time opposite to us. Turns out they're not that lazy!
They also told us that the cliffs in Kaikoura are made of limestone, which erodes really nicely, leaving the bays and platforms for the seals that they like so much. Another reason Kaikoura is perfect.
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| This is the peninsula that we drove around on the boat. See all the areas for seals to rest? |
Another fun fact - I was home watching David Attenborough's Life Story (It's his latest series and if you haven't watched it you totally should. Each episode is a stage of life, so the first episode was ALL baby animals taking their first steps, and the second episode was learning to be independent from their moms. So good! Can't wait for next Sunday at 7:30. Anyway...) and one of the last animals they featured were the New Zealand fur seal babies IN KAIKOURA. I was so excited.
He was talking about how the first time the baby seals try to enter the ocean in Kaikoura, there are so many dangers, so the fur seals in Kaikoura actually swim upstream about 20 kilometers to a little pool of water at the base of a water fall. Then they all hang out until theyre ready to go back - also I think until they get hungry, because there can't be much to eat there.
The guide on the seal swim told us that the seals are pretty territorial (on the rock I think because they were fine in the water ) and they like to hold an area. They aren't considered "socially mature" until they can defend their own area. I guess they don't have this problem at the pools.
David Attenborough highlighted the fact that noone knows how they find this pool, because they make the trip once - so its not like they see other seals coming and going all the time. I thought that was pretty awesome and was so happy that by the time I watched this special I had already seen the baby seal pool and swum with big seals in the wild!
So anyway, now that you know all the background information, I'll give you a brief summary of what its like to swim with seals.
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| Just one more photo of the beautiful place that is Kaikoura |
First of all there were eight or nine people in the group so they managed to find two areas that were perfect for observing some seal activity and let us split up in to the groups we came with. We each got a guide who helped us spot the seals and he swam with a giant kick board that Naja got to hold on to, so that was really nice too.
The seals didn't mind us in the water and swam around us for the most part. A few of them swam a few meters a way but a lot of them came within a meter of me! As we swam a little longer we started to notice that a lof of them were chasing each other. Our guide told us it was "that time of year" so it was mostly boys chasing girls. I don't think many of them were very successful.
We floated around (wet suits let you float) and put our heads under when a seal came near and stared at them, and swum with them. It was pretty cool. But just as we were all getting a little cold and a little tired the best thing happened! The biggest seal I had seen all day, swam right up to me, maybe a foot a way, and just stayed there. Kind of moved its backside in circles so it could stay relatively in the same spot and we got to really look at the seal in the wild. Those eyes! They were so big. Honestly, even if I had my camera I was way to excited to take any pictures. After that happened we knew it wasn't going to get any better, so we hailed down the boat and got out of the freezing cold water.
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| THOSE EYES. |
And as if anything could top an up close encounter with a New Zealand fur seal..... They let us pour hot water down our wetsuits. This is a feeling you'll never understand til you do it. Just do it.
And that was it! Then we took the boat/van back to Kaikoura, shared a pizza, did a little souvenier shop, and drove all the way back to Christchurch.
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| "Those mountain layers..." I hear ya, Young Adventuress. And that's why I bought.. THIS. |
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