Sorry to appear to be gloating here, but the other NZ posters will probably back me up here.
I've seen literally hundreds of dolphins many times in 35 years living here. The country is surrounded by them (obviously as an island) But where I live in Northland it's got 2700 km of coastline and you are never more than 30 mins from the sea (Pacific Ocean to the east and Tasman Sea to the west) and I've seen and experienced some amazing see life.
I've literally stroked orca in the sea while doing about 12 knots in Whangarei Harbour after being taken on a research boat by one of the world's orca experts Dr Ingrid Visser (who is frm Whangarei)
I've seen blue whales, pilot whales and humpbacks.
I've been to strandings where 200+ pilot whlles have stranded, dolphin strandings and orca strandings.
I've also seen more mola mola (sun fish) than NZ's expert on the fish as they regularly strand in Whangarei Harbour (they are huge fish and swim upright, but come into our harbour and they lay on their sides to 'sunbathe' but as the tide goes out very quickly they cannot swim on their sides and strand because they cannot get upright again.
I've seen too many sharks to count, including great whites, mako, hammerheads, bronze whalers etc etc.
And most recently I got to see a whale shark off the Poor Knights Islands. They normally live much further north in the warmer sub-tropical waters, but with an ocean heatwave going on here they are coming to our part for the first time.
HOWEVER, while all those were amazing the best experience was one time out with the NZ Navy on the HMNZS Frigate Waikato.
They were doing a 'war' exercise in international waters off NZ with the HMNZS Frigate Canterbury/.
They were practising a scenario where they had to get a message from one ship to the other but couldn't use any method that could be picked up by the 'enemy'.
So it got to the stage where both frigates were on battle speed a couple of hundred metres apart and they fired a rope from the Waikato to the Canterbury then a sailor had to shimmie across the rope, about 50 metres above sea level, from one ship to the other with the message. It was an awesome experience as it was, but just as the guy was about half way across about 300 dolphins started swimming between the ships. They were swimming from one side to the other in several groups, jumping out of the water en masse and generally having a great time.
I loved The juxtaposition of this very serious 'wartime' situation going on above, while the dolphins were just doing what they do, having fun in the water.
Sorry if that's a bit long, but I have many, many other amazing experiences in and on the ocean off Northland.
I tell you what, growing up in Blue Hall I never thought I'd get to stroke a killer whale or experience anything like I have, after all, the closest I ever came to marine life a kid was in Norton Duck Pond, The wash (old castle) or Billy Beck...
www.gazettelive.co.uk
