Wabi Sabi- Perfection in the Imperfections: New Zealand Day 8: Kaikoura Seal Swim

We left Christchurch quite early to drive two hours to Kaikoura. We had to get to Kaikoura early for our seal swim. I talked to the tour people and they said the earlier tours are better for tidal conditions so we went with it. We got there about 30 minutes before our tour started and explored the beach a little bit.

The beach was all pebbles and when the waves crashed and went back out is sounded like a thousand little chimes. It was SO beautiful. As you can see there was some fog that morning but the sun started to burn it off and it was like a picture window to the mountains.

The reason Kaikoura is such a good spot of Whale, Dolphin & Seal watching is because the mountains are so close to the sea and that topography continues underwater...

"The Kaikoura Peninsula extends into the sea south of the town, and the resulting upwelling currents bring an abundance of marine life from the depths of the nearby Hikurangi Trench." -Wikipedia

SO here we are all suited up to go swimming with the seals. We used Seal Swim Kaikoura. They were a family run Father, Daughter, and I think even Grandfather business. They were really awesome. Since the tours are totally out in the wild they can be unpredictable so for people that reserve in advance if the weather is too bad to go you get a full refund, and if you go out there and there are no seals, or due to tide, weather, or seal behavior you can't swim with them you get most of your money back, they just keep a small fee to cover the cost of what they did do.

The water was really cold, but it was so exciting to swim with the seals I hardly noticed. We got a little waterproof camera bag called a DiCaPac for Dericks little camera and it worked SO well... with the exception of a little bit of black on the corner of some the pictures it was awesome and only like 25 bucks!

There was Kelp everywhere... I felt like I was swimming through a kelp forest. Unfortunately some of the fog hung around and it kept the temperatures cooler and the seals usually get in the water during the day when they are overheating... so we only got to swim with like 5 different seals. But it was still awesome... but I was a little sad. But I knew we were swimming with dolphins the next day so I kept my hopes up!

This was the view from our hotel. We stayed at the Panorama Motel which was a little bit older but really nice. We had a two bedroom apartment with a kitchenette and sea views!