Day 3: Sailing with dolphins

Yup, the title indeed is just that. Sailing with dolphins.
The business case there is quite straight forward. You take a boat, a catamaran in this case, stick quite a few tourists on it, and go sailing in the Bay of Islands while searching for dolphins.

The kicker here is that you’re allowed to go for a swim WITH the dolphins next to you. If the dolphins are not unfriendly towards you and do not have babies, you can go in the water with them. And try to keep up.
As the animals are wild, they are curious about you in the water, but they’re not inclined to let you set the pace. The dolphins move and swim on their own terms and more specifically their own speed. Which is quite fast!

The tour ends with the obligatory snorkeling, barbeque and sailing back towards Paihia, but the tourists are completely nackered by then because of the full day on the water.

Oh yes, we are living the hard life over here!