Day 68: Kaikoura to Wellington

There is little that would get me to wake up at 4.30am and get into freezing cold sea. Swimming with wild dolphins, though, is one of them. Today is the last day of my South Island tour and what a way to finish.

Dressed in the oh so fashionable wetsuit, including hood, we all went out to sea. Here waves were huge and the sun wasn't yet up but in less than 20 minutes we have found a huge pod of over 100 dusky dolphins and are getting flippers up and jumping into the water. The first swim did not go too well for me... A combination of hitting the cold water, forgetting I couldn't breathe through my nose in a snorkel, the excitement of hundreds of dolphins swimming around me and the hilarity of watching a group of people looking and sounding completely ridiculous trying to engage the dolphins with flipper actions and loud bubbling screeches and singing ("remember you are entertaining the dolphins, not the other way round") meant I became semi paralysed and could do very little but frantically tread water.

First swim done, though, the next four were honestly some of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. All these dolphins swimming around you, then doing acrobats in the air just like you're told to expect do but never actually believe they do in real life. Even Matthias, who all along the trip has wholly objected to the excessive use of the word 'awesome', blurts out "now THIS is really really awethom". 

After the swim, a lot of concerned faces are staring at me saying I've turned blue. Even with the hot chocolate (which I epically spilt all down myself) it took three hours to feel my toes again, but it was so so so worth it. Ahhhhhhh amazing. 

Preform we knew it we were back on the bus and heading up through the Marlborough wine town of Blenheim and then Picton, still smelling of sea and hot chocolate, to the ferry to take us back to Wellington.

What was supposed to be 'party boat', quickly subsided into a sleep fest as we all nodded off. When we woke from our slumber we passed the time in a way that only very tired people do, by asking ridiculous 'would you rather' questions and trying to talk to each other without showing our teeth which set us all off into uncontrollable giggles... We weren't even drunk.

Back at the hostel, I'm no longer officially a G Adventurer - it felt so sad to be in a dorm without the gang. At dinner everyone was feeling a little emotional but I've got to say I was feeling all dandy until Sofia had to leave and she started crying, which then set me off!

We then cheered ourselves up with more beer, more dancing, and watching people play ridiculous group games all in the name of free shots. Feels like the last week of university!