Animal Magic

When Jonny Morris had his annual Top Ten animals on Animal Magic I was always routing for the dolphins but baffled when horses used to win every year. Bloody Home Counties' girls! We've had a few chances to have boat trips to see and swim with dolphins both in Perth and New Zealand but tried to leave it as late as possible so that the sea/Ocean would be as warm as possible. We booked in the Bay of Islands, a few hours north of Auckland, on the East coast of the North Island.

It was superb. It was a beautiful calm day, barely a ripple in the water, so the captain of the ship spotted some bottlenose dolphins straightaway. The group of about 10-15 dolphins swam around the boat, underneath, alongside and basically showed off for 45mins while we watched in awe. It's a shame we can't put video clips on because the footage of them jumping in and out of the water is fantastic. Unfortunately, as there was a young dolphin with its mother we weren't allowed to swim with them in case the mum became anxious and protective but we were so blown away that we didn't mind.

The boat's bow is very low in the water so we could lean over with our heads poking out and see the dolphins swimming beneath us about a foot away (see the real close up) at one point 3 were grinning right up at us as they swam on their sides.

We had a campsite right on the water's edge, so here's me having a relaxing beer one evening, the sunrise when we got up to see the dolphins and the bay itself. Just as an Owen bonus we were treated to a stunning rainbow at the beach!