In light of my "happy" blog from Fiji, I thought it would be fun to end my time in each country by writing about what I discovered about myself while there. These words might sound really familiar in case you've been keeping up with my New Zealand blogs, which is why I'll start off with where I last off in Kaikoura, swimming with dolphins, since that pretty much sums up everything that I loved about New Zealand. :)
Arriving in Kaikoura, I had seriously high expectations for the little east coast town, and I'm happy to say that it fully surpassed all of them. That may be because I've been a dolphin/whale fanatic my whole life, and Kaikoura is the sea mammal capital of New Zealand. As a kid, I collected whale figurines, wrote an epic whale poem, went whale-watching for every birthday that I could, and even managed to adopt a humpback whale named "Salt," whatever that means. ;) I loved them because they're the biggest animal, and somehow I equated that with the best. So when I learned that I could not only see whales from the shore, but also swim with dolphins in Kaikoura, I knew I had to save the best thing for last on my NZ trip.
After I checked into the adorable Dolphin Lodge at around 3pm, a semi-annoying Belgian girl named Nena and I set out to walk to a look-out point offering views of the wholecoastline. It was a sunny day with blue skies, and we could plainly see all of the surrounding snow-capped mountains. Gorgeous! While I was busy taking panoramic photos, Nena exclaimed that in the distant water she saw a whale, and totally redeemed herself! :) We waited with our eyes pinned to the south bay spot which a nearby topographical map indicated was named "Whalers Point," and we saw a speck of white water spout up which must have been the size of a boat! Sure enough 2 nearby boats raced toward it, and we were able to make out cameras flashing from the boats. Of course we didn't see any tails or fins, but we were really excited to have seen one without paying the $145 whale-watching fee!
After that we parted ways, and I walked across the Peninsula on the south bay track to where we'd seen the whale. By that time the whale-watching boat had just docked, and it was too difficult to see 10 miles out from the shore-line. Undaunted, I continued ambling along the Peninsula Walkway, thoroughly enjoying the colorful views, informational panels on whales, and occasional seal colonies. I find when traveling that I need 1-2 days per week of solo time to recharge my batteries, and this sparsely used walkway was the perfect place to do it! I reached the top of the peninsula right when the sun was setting, transforming the sky into an orangey pink and illuminating the water with a spectrum of colors from dark blue to purple, red, orange, green and turquoise. At that moment I had to sit and journal, reflecting on how inspired by natural beauty I've been during this trip. It was so blissful, I considered meditating like I'd been taught while WWOOFING. But, it was getting dark and I still had to descend the hill, and I'd already learned my lesson with a similar fiasco while traveling with my friend Golly in Wellington. ;) So I high-tailed it down, passing another annoying German couple on the way, and hit the pavement right when there was no more light. Thankfully said German couple redeemed themselves as well, when they gave me a ride back to my hostel to save me another hour's walk. :) I celebrated my beautiful Kaikoura day by treating myself to clam chowder and a beer, that totally hit the spot.
The next day I woke up at 4:45am for my 5:30am appointment with Dolphin Encounter. My guide book said that it's a super reputable company, and it definitely was! They geared us up with wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins, and then had us watch a video briefing on how these dolphins are WILD, so it's up to us to entertain them as opposed to the other way around. We boarded a bus and then a boat, and before I knew it we were surrounded by HUNDREDS of swimming dolphins! It was crazy and a bit nerve-wracking! I stumbled about the boat nervously gearing up but not knowing what to expect, and before I knew it I was sliding into the 14 degree celsius water. I nervously looked below me into the vast blue emptiness, then back up to the boat, which is what I always do in deep ocean water. "OMG! What feet deep is it?!" (My brother Brady will appreciate that reference, haha) With my head raised above the water, I saw a dark gray dorsal fin swim toward me. I momentarily sucked in air while biting my snorkel in a brief moment of panic, then tentatively ducked my head under the water. There I saw a freaking 5-foot dark gray dolphin furiously swimming toward me, then away from me just as rapidly as he came! Ahh! But I literally had no time to be scared, or process what I was doing, because instantly there were 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 dolphins all swimming within a 5-foot radius of my floundering body. I think I was a little bit in shock, like "is this really happening?!" After what seemed like ages of trying to stay afloat and breathe, I developed the courage to act "dolphin-like" as they recommended, by making high-pitched noises, swimming in circles and diving below. That really got their attention! At one moment, I FREAKED out because I saw something black swimming with us. When I saw a webbed flipper and realized it was a seal, I yelled out and almost swam back to the boat! But none of my fellow swimmers seemed alarmed, so I hesitantly continued with what I was doing, taking pictures and swimming in circles with the dolphins. It got exhausting, especially after we climbed out of the water, jetted another 15 minutes south and jumped in the water with even more dolphins. But it was beautiful. It sounds like a hippie-Cassie thing to say, but I swear that when I locked eyes with a dolphin and we swam circles with each other, it felt like I was one with nature... with everything, really. It was just purely beautiful.
When we finally were done with swimming, everyone hurried to take their wetsuits off and put on warm clothes, but my whole body felt warm and calm at the back of the boat, even with the cold wind blowing. They stopped the boat so we could take pictures, and I jumped out on the teeny front and got some great pictures! They reminded me of dogs, how they were so friendly and playful, with an insane amount of energy!
On the way back, our equally full of energy Kiwi guide, Melani, told me everything there is to know about getting a job with them. I'm pretty sure that that's what I want to do the next time I'm in New Zealand. What an amazing job! Fingers crossed it works out some day! :) When we fi
nally left Dolphin Encounter, their last message to us was that we'd just had a real dolphin experience, in which they were not enticed. I thought it was such a great take-away message, since we all need to appreciate real experiences with our natural world.
Walking back to the hostel, I couldn't stop smiling and reflecting upon the beautiful experience I'd just had. I felt divinely elated... like I do after a great and uplifting worship service. Similarly to my other interactions with New Zealand, I couldn't put words to how I was feeling, until I spoke about it with a young woman who worked at our hostel. She totally identified with how I was feeling, her eyes lighting up and speaking about how it makes sense why dolphin swims are useful in special needs children's rehabilitation. She even said that in Russia and the U.S., women can actually give underwater births with dolphins in the water! Apparently they nudge women to be in the correct positions, which is what they do with their fellow dolphins... it really just baffles the mind! But I loved what she said about how she felt after she swam with the dolphins... "she just felt love." I really felt the same way... the "Baba nam kevalam" kind of love, the "we are all together as one" kind of love. It was just beautiful.
Later that afternoon I hitch-hiked back to Christchurch, and later on that night I actually found out that I was accepted into the school of public health master's program at UCLA! For being my last day in New Zealand, I have to say it was perfect. Now I'm writing this from Sydney, Australia, and I doubt that my week here will live up to the wonderful time I had in New Zealand. But, similarly to how I took my "happy" on with me from Fiji, I'm sure that I'll also take my bliss, beauty, love and acceptance from New Zealand on with me during the rest of my trip, and always. I have to say again... yay life! :)
Arriving in Kaikoura, I had seriously high expectations for the little east coast town, and I'm happy to say that it fully surpassed all of them. That may be because I've been a dolphin/whale fanatic my whole life, and Kaikoura is the sea mammal capital of New Zealand. As a kid, I collected whale figurines, wrote an epic whale poem, went whale-watching for every birthday that I could, and even managed to adopt a humpback whale named "Salt," whatever that means. ;) I loved them because they're the biggest animal, and somehow I equated that with the best. So when I learned that I could not only see whales from the shore, but also swim with dolphins in Kaikoura, I knew I had to save the best thing for last on my NZ trip.
After I checked into the adorable Dolphin Lodge at around 3pm, a semi-annoying Belgian girl named Nena and I set out to walk to a look-out point offering views of the wholecoastline. It was a sunny day with blue skies, and we could plainly see all of the surrounding snow-capped mountains. Gorgeous! While I was busy taking panoramic photos, Nena exclaimed that in the distant water she saw a whale, and totally redeemed herself! :) We waited with our eyes pinned to the south bay spot which a nearby topographical map indicated was named "Whalers Point," and we saw a speck of white water spout up which must have been the size of a boat! Sure enough 2 nearby boats raced toward it, and we were able to make out cameras flashing from the boats. Of course we didn't see any tails or fins, but we were really excited to have seen one without paying the $145 whale-watching fee!
After that we parted ways, and I walked across the Peninsula on the south bay track to where we'd seen the whale. By that time the whale-watching boat had just docked, and it was too difficult to see 10 miles out from the shore-line. Undaunted, I continued ambling along the Peninsula Walkway, thoroughly enjoying the colorful views, informational panels on whales, and occasional seal colonies. I find when traveling that I need 1-2 days per week of solo time to recharge my batteries, and this sparsely used walkway was the perfect place to do it! I reached the top of the peninsula right when the sun was setting, transforming the sky into an orangey pink and illuminating the water with a spectrum of colors from dark blue to purple, red, orange, green and turquoise. At that moment I had to sit and journal, reflecting on how inspired by natural beauty I've been during this trip. It was so blissful, I considered meditating like I'd been taught while WWOOFING. But, it was getting dark and I still had to descend the hill, and I'd already learned my lesson with a similar fiasco while traveling with my friend Golly in Wellington. ;) So I high-tailed it down, passing another annoying German couple on the way, and hit the pavement right when there was no more light. Thankfully said German couple redeemed themselves as well, when they gave me a ride back to my hostel to save me another hour's walk. :) I celebrated my beautiful Kaikoura day by treating myself to clam chowder and a beer, that totally hit the spot.
The next day I woke up at 4:45am for my 5:30am appointment with Dolphin Encounter. My guide book said that it's a super reputable company, and it definitely was! They geared us up with wetsuits, snorkels, masks and fins, and then had us watch a video briefing on how these dolphins are WILD, so it's up to us to entertain them as opposed to the other way around. We boarded a bus and then a boat, and before I knew it we were surrounded by HUNDREDS of swimming dolphins! It was crazy and a bit nerve-wracking! I stumbled about the boat nervously gearing up but not knowing what to expect, and before I knew it I was sliding into the 14 degree celsius water. I nervously looked below me into the vast blue emptiness, then back up to the boat, which is what I always do in deep ocean water. "OMG! What feet deep is it?!" (My brother Brady will appreciate that reference, haha) With my head raised above the water, I saw a dark gray dorsal fin swim toward me. I momentarily sucked in air while biting my snorkel in a brief moment of panic, then tentatively ducked my head under the water. There I saw a freaking 5-foot dark gray dolphin furiously swimming toward me, then away from me just as rapidly as he came! Ahh! But I literally had no time to be scared, or process what I was doing, because instantly there were 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 dolphins all swimming within a 5-foot radius of my floundering body. I think I was a little bit in shock, like "is this really happening?!" After what seemed like ages of trying to stay afloat and breathe, I developed the courage to act "dolphin-like" as they recommended, by making high-pitched noises, swimming in circles and diving below. That really got their attention! At one moment, I FREAKED out because I saw something black swimming with us. When I saw a webbed flipper and realized it was a seal, I yelled out and almost swam back to the boat! But none of my fellow swimmers seemed alarmed, so I hesitantly continued with what I was doing, taking pictures and swimming in circles with the dolphins. It got exhausting, especially after we climbed out of the water, jetted another 15 minutes south and jumped in the water with even more dolphins. But it was beautiful. It sounds like a hippie-Cassie thing to say, but I swear that when I locked eyes with a dolphin and we swam circles with each other, it felt like I was one with nature... with everything, really. It was just purely beautiful.
When we finally were done with swimming, everyone hurried to take their wetsuits off and put on warm clothes, but my whole body felt warm and calm at the back of the boat, even with the cold wind blowing. They stopped the boat so we could take pictures, and I jumped out on the teeny front and got some great pictures! They reminded me of dogs, how they were so friendly and playful, with an insane amount of energy!
On the way back, our equally full of energy Kiwi guide, Melani, told me everything there is to know about getting a job with them. I'm pretty sure that that's what I want to do the next time I'm in New Zealand. What an amazing job! Fingers crossed it works out some day! :) When we fi
nally left Dolphin Encounter, their last message to us was that we'd just had a real dolphin experience, in which they were not enticed. I thought it was such a great take-away message, since we all need to appreciate real experiences with our natural world.Walking back to the hostel, I couldn't stop smiling and reflecting upon the beautiful experience I'd just had. I felt divinely elated... like I do after a great and uplifting worship service. Similarly to my other interactions with New Zealand, I couldn't put words to how I was feeling, until I spoke about it with a young woman who worked at our hostel. She totally identified with how I was feeling, her eyes lighting up and speaking about how it makes sense why dolphin swims are useful in special needs children's rehabilitation. She even said that in Russia and the U.S., women can actually give underwater births with dolphins in the water! Apparently they nudge women to be in the correct positions, which is what they do with their fellow dolphins... it really just baffles the mind! But I loved what she said about how she felt after she swam with the dolphins... "she just felt love." I really felt the same way... the "Baba nam kevalam" kind of love, the "we are all together as one" kind of love. It was just beautiful.
Later that afternoon I hitch-hiked back to Christchurch, and later on that night I actually found out that I was accepted into the school of public health master's program at UCLA! For being my last day in New Zealand, I have to say it was perfect. Now I'm writing this from Sydney, Australia, and I doubt that my week here will live up to the wonderful time I had in New Zealand. But, similarly to how I took my "happy" on with me from Fiji, I'm sure that I'll also take my bliss, beauty, love and acceptance from New Zealand on with me during the rest of my trip, and always. I have to say again... yay life! :)
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