Sunday, November 18, 2007

We saw dolphins yesterday

Its not like we haven't seen them before. I have been to the dolphin place in Napier & seen them perform, I've seen them on TV as you do, & seen them swimming past the boat while we have been fishing, but this was up close & personal.

You see, Herself & I went fishing yesterday. We usually fish from Te Puru, but when the tide is low there, it can be a little tense getting the boat in & out of the water, so lately, we have been fishing from Waikawau. This ramp offers an easy launch into a river mouth & now that it has been dredged, it offers at least two feet of water under the keel even at the lowest ebb. We are still ,however, finding where the fish are in that particular area. So we went out & ended up catching 4 snapper & deciding to have a look round, as that area offers some very picturesque scenery with bays & little islands & such, so we went all the way up to Deadmans Bay, which is the start of Coromandel Harbour. On the way back, Herself happened to see a big splash in the water , so we investigated.

Imagine our joy when it turned out to be a pod of about 30 dolphins, some up to about 15 ft., in length. They put on a lovely show for us, leaping out of the water in pairs & all sorts of things, all impromptu & all without any human bribing them with dead fish. They were doing it for the sheer joy of being able to, not as part of some routine necessary for food. They even had babies with them. Some of them came that close to the boat you could nearly touch them. God it was fantastic. The only sad bit was that I didn't have any sort of camera with me, so I can't share the experience with you. maybe next time...

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