Day 10 - Kaikoura

This is going to have to be a quick update (in terms of words) as food is being warmed up downstairs and I am late.  This morning we drove from Blenheim to Kaikoura in order to swim with the dolphins with Dolphin Encounter.  The 2 hour drive itself was right along the jagged coast and was beautiful!  We came upon a seal preserve and got to check out some baby seals right when the sun came up!

This is the company we used for the dolphin swim.

Mindy was freaking out all morning because it was insanely cold outside to be swimming in the ocean!  Air temp and water temp were both in the low 50's!   Long story short, we saw a few dolphins on the 3 hour boat ride but never got to swim with them - total bummer.  Well, not really a bummer.  The reason we didn't get to swim with them was because there were killer whale's (Orca) in the ocean.  We got the boat ride up beside them!  3 orcas and 4 sperm whales in all!

We then drove through the dark to Punakaiki on the west coast.  The drive was spectacular.