Up close and personal with a Hector Dolphin

As part of my job, I regularly visit some of the work that is being carried out by my colleagues around the country. This time, I had the opportunity to visit the Akaroa in Canterbury. This is a beautiful part of Canterbury about 40 minutes drive out of Christchurch.

To get there, you will have to drive a rather winding road up Port Hills and down to the other side to a fantastic, jaw dropping sceneray of the volcanic water ways. The day I was there, the weather turned out to be absolutely georgeous! Blue skies and the sun fully turned on.



We took a boat trip down to the existing marine reserve and the proposed marine reserve right out to sea. All the way, you could see the sea teeming with marine life.







I saw a few blue penguins happily swimming in the sea, one seal taking a leisurely evening swim and playing in the water, a few on the rocks - sun bathing and a number of the endangered Hector Dolphins. There are only about 700 of them left in the wild and the shores of New Zealand are the only place where you can spot them. As you would have guessed, spotting these dolphins is a million dollar industry.





The dolphins were rather small in size. About a metre in length and were very friendly as they were swimming about the boat not bothered about the cameras or the attention. During summer, you could actually swim with them. And depending on the weather, you could literally see hundreds!

But for this trip, I had to settle for four!