Thursday, June 16, 2011

Bottlenose Dolphins

Back in January I spent some time with family in the Sounds. It was one of those perfect summer days, calm water, sun, a slight breeze, beautiful colours.. What better day to spend in the boat? So up to the Head of the Tory channel to do a spot of fishing... and photographing..



On the way up we came across a pod of bottlenose dolphins - beautiful creatures. The followed us for ages, surfing in the wake of our boat...


It's the second time I've come across them - the first time they were doing huge flips in the air, but unfortunately I had the wrong lens on so didn't get any photos - and by the time I had changed lenses, they had settled down and were being sensible. This time they were only interested in surfing in our wake...


I can't remember how many were there, but I think I counted at least 15 of them.


The water out here is pretty cold, so I wasn't about to swim with them - wetsuits would have been needed. Besides, I really didn't want to upset the dolphins - they might have thought I was a Beluga Whale!!!


Even though we caught some Blue Cod for dinner, my main memories of the day were the dolphins. (And the champagne we had a lunch!) They, in my opinion, are just magical.


It's a beautiful part of New Zealand I live in. I can't wait to see the dolphins again!

2 comments:

Debbi said...

Beautiful photos - the color of the water is incredible. We have a tribe of dolphins in our bay - they are curious and friendly...but no one swims with them. They are wild and should stay that way :-)
Thanks so much for sharing!
Debbi

Anonymous said...

I agree they should stay wild too :) The marlborough Sounds water is always an incredible colour :)


Cheers
Robyn