The Story Behind the Image: Dolphins in Kaikoura New Zealand
Welcome to our new series, The Story Behind the Image, in which we ask our team of Airfare Experts to share their favourite travel moments captured on camera. Our first story comes from Sian Thomas.
"My friend and I were travelling around and we had reached Kaikoura in New Zealand, which is known as being a marine hotspot. It was one of the first stops and when we arrived, the weather was terrible so the opportunity to go out on the boat quickly disappeared.
"As we were only there for the one night we decided it was worth it to get up at 4.30am to be out on the first boat and risk the weather. Kaikoura is one of the only places where you can swim with dolphin ‘super pods’ – wild groups of up to 500. Struggling to wake up, put on a damp wet suit and get through some pretty rough waves made us question our sanity!
"After sailing around for a considerable time and feeling more and more morose , we stumbled across an incredible sight – 300 wild dusky dolphins. We spent 20 minutes in the water with them and they were incredibly playful and inquisitive, looping and leaping around us as we tried to sing through our snorkels (it sounded horrendous but one of the best ways to spark a dolphin’s interest).
"The water was clear, breathtakingly cold and it was just incredible to be completely surrounded. As we slowly made our way back to the boat the dolphins clearly had not had enough and chased us, throwing themselves out of the water alongside the edge as we powered back.
"Three in particular were taking turns to leap out twist and dive under in a row, and after numerous shaky shots as I tried to balance the rocking of the boat with how fast they were jumping I finally managed to capture that photo, which to me perfectly summed up the pure joy of that morning."
Do you have an image and story you'd like to share with us? Post it on Instagram with the hashtag #fcmoments
