Dolphins

New Zealand's Bay of Islands is the North Island's vacationland.  It looks like the San Juans and can only be seen by boat.  To get a sense of the place, we booked a tour around the Bay.

About 15 minutes into the tour, we saw a dorsal fin off in the distance.  It was a dolphin, something the tour-boat captain promised we would see.

But we got more than the guaranteed siting.  One dolphin swam right up to our boat.  That was just the beginning of what proved to be quite a show.



It turns out a pod of dolphins makes its annual visit to feed in the Bay Of Islands.

The dolphins were not shy.  They swam right up next to the boat.  They frolicked right off the bow.

As if on cue, they started breaching out of the water.

The dolphins at Sea World couldn't do any better.  They jumped high out of the water....

They did front flips.

This went on for a good 10 minutes.



We didn't think it could get any better, but then we got a treat.

We saw a mother dolphin (on the right) along with her pup.













We weren't quite sure what this picture was...until we got it on the computer and could enlarge it.  It's a photo of a dolphin pup riding on its mother's back!  Look carefully, and you'll be able to see it.

A few seconds later, we got another treat.  The action takes place under water, so you have to look carefully.  This is that same dolphin pup (we think) nursing on its mother!

The Marine Mammals Act limited the amount of time we could linger and watch, so we had to move on.  The rest of the tour of the bay was uneventful, but that 10 minutes was worth the price of admission.