Jellyfish boppin' and dolphin watchin'

This past weekend was the fantastic experience of "adventure weekend."  While I was super bummed since the program's insurance decided they couldn't let us "swim in natural bodies of water" along with everything else fun meant we weren't able to swim with the dolphins like planned, but like last weekend with the rain everything actually ended up being for the best.  The dolphins we did see were the Hector's dolphins (actually an endangered species found only in New Zealand, apparently dying off because no prey would take them seriously due to their utter adorableness) which aren't usually playful and friendly but swam around our boat for 20 minutes putting on a show and playing with us.  Then the bottle nose dolphins we found had a baby less than 2 weeks old and they would be too protective for swimmers.  So even the people on our boat who were going to swim didn't end up getting to but it was pretty cold and we got a great show anyway.  I shall now bombard you with some dolphin pictures:

Hector's being frisky

d'awww

Bottle nose dolphins, they looked GIANT after the little Hector's 

Catalina and I champing.

Right, so after the dolphin extravaganza we had lunch and then were taken by bus away from Picton (the northern port on the South island where the ferry comes in and we stayed the 1st night) plopped in kayaks and told to get ourselves back to Picton.  So maybe we had a little help and a snack break/holding starfish time along the way.

The coolest thing (other than the starfish holding) was the JELLYFISH HOLDING! there were roughly a googol of jellyfish in Marlborough Sounds and they were adorable little moon jellies you could pick up and bop on the heads as you kayaked by.  I was frequently distracted by this game and Catalina would have to remind me to steer, not to mention paddle.

 The rest of the trip was spent with more gaping in awe of the beauty surrounding us and huffing and puffing for a completely uphill hike for 2 hours we were trying to go fast on so we could "see more."  I said well that don't make no sense so I took my time and grabbed a ton of gorgeous pictures.  It's funny how in some places it felt just like hiking in the Smokey Mountains and then all of a sudden there would be a look out into the sound which is like nothing else we have.

As of now I am super excited for the parentals to arrive and show them around my new home.  There will be much more to come in the next few weeks as we explore the south island in all it's glory.

Sunset on the Sounds