Day 9 (E Iwa ra)

Kia Ora Koutou!

Well my exam today went pretty well, always dangerous to say, but it was not too bad (I hope). So, NZ lit and Maori done, Restoration and Children's fantasy lit to do.
I can't believe the stupid planning of Vic, assholes. But oh well, can't be helped..

Whakatane!
Jeu! I'm gonna tell you about the best part of my trip with my mommie! It is day 9 and 10. From Hahei we went to Whakatane a little, but really cosy town at sea (yes again), the region is called "The Bay of Plenty." When we arrived at whakatane (say: fakatanee)we went to the I site to get us some information on...dophinswimming! We were directed to the office of this guy who did tours. They warned us about the coldness of the water but when we came to the guys office he told us it would be around 21 degrees. COLD?? That's not cold, we are lucky when the north sea is that temperature!

After talking for over an hour, we booked a place for my mom and me on his little boat for the next day. He told us about a good spot to stay the night, which was...at the beach. I know it is getting a little boring ;)

So we went for a nice coffee, bought two little Flax Kete to wrap my gift for Bas and Eva and went to the place we could stay. It was a very good spot, nice beach and public toilets. I know in Holland you try to avoid public toilets as much as you can, but here in New Zealand they are really cleacn, mostly decorated and you can always find one in a radius of 10 minutes of where you are at the moment.

The beautiful sunset photo's, which I attached to this message again are taken on this beach.

Then...it was morning (after eating, walking on the beach collecting incredibly cool seashells, and sleeping).
we went to the office again and got into our wetsuits, trying on flippers and getting directions on how to behave when we were allowed to go into the water with the dolphins.

Once in the boat, it turned out it was a very very fast boat! If I'm correct we 'flew' over the water with 70k's an hour!
We were all looking if we could see doplhins, of course I thought I saw them every minute, but no...just foam...
After an hour or so, our guide found them!

It was so awesome! Over 1000 (yes really THAT many) dolphins in the sea! Adn lucky for us, we could go swimming with them. I've snorkeled only once before with Agnes in Turkey so I was a little nervous. Especially because I'm not fond of swimming in the sea or ocean...there may be SHARKS...you know...

But well, since I was there I slipped into the ocean (with as little splashing as possible, because that might frighten the dolphins)and GOD that was cold! It took my breath away! Try to breath trough a snorkel then! Jees! (it wasn't really cold, only the getting in part).

I put my head down in the water and there it was, the vastness of the ocean only was breathtaking! But in that green water...dolphins! So many of them! They were swimming in groups of 3 and 4, far off but close as well. And how fast they are! The guy told us we needed to make eye contact with them through the goggles because they only come close once they know you have seen them. But before I could do that they suddenly 'took a sprint' and gone they were...

Then it popped in my mind that dolphins do that when there are Orka's, Whales or sharks around. OH MY GOD, I almost choked and wanted to get in the boat as soon as I could. There was no shark, orka or other whale to be seen, they just left to feed at another spot, but man! Did they scare me!

So, we raced after them with the boat so we could do another swim. When I got in, this lady jumped/fell on top of me, which resulted in me loosing one of my flippers. I took the snorkel out of my mouth to tell them and the guy said to me, look down! Look at the dolphins! So out of reflex I did, but forgot to put in my snorkel! Nasty taste the salty water of the sea!

Then, I got my flipper back, apparently they float and while I was swimming with the dolphins again I looked to the right and left but at one point I turned my head just a little to far and....again yukkie salty seawater in my snorkel and I choked on it. God it was horrible, I almost sank. :)

Then they left again, so in the boat, racing after them, in the water again! It was so cool, I cannot really express the feeling when these amazing creatures are all around you, swimming 30cm away from you, looking at you, making their squeeky sounds it was just incredible.
When they moved on again, same ritual. The wind was getting stronger though, so the fourth swim was going to be our last. When I needed to get back to the boat, I couldn't see it anymore because of the surge. That scared me half to death. When I saw the boat I started to swim towards it, but it turned out I swam in the wrong direction...
That scared me even more, and I was saying to myself: no worries Micky, You'll get there, just breathe, just swim...Brrrr. It was really difficult to reach the boat and at one point my legs started to hurt badly. No, that was not a nice feeling. Obviously I made it back to the boat, otherwise I wouldn't be here typing this message...

We still followed the dolphins for a while, made some cool pictures of them leaping out of the water and swimming in front of the boat, I'll show them to you when I get back.
Near a little Island we stopped for some coffee and milo (hot chocolate) and then we went back to the harbour of Whakatane.

I must say, this is the best thing I've ever done! And if you're planning to go to New Zealand, ask me where to go. The guy is great and our tour lasted 2 hours longer than it was supposed to, just because we had so much fun!

After the dolphin swim, we drove down to Rotorua, the thermal area of NZ. We were planning to do some stuff but because we had such a great time with the dolphins, we decided not to. We just went for a relaxing night at the polynesian Spa.
We slept at the war Memorial in Rotorua (see photo) and the next day: Hell's gate - Taupo - Napier.