Queen Charlotte Sound

What is it with dolphins that we, humans, are so drawn to them? Sure they are gorgeous and graceful but so are leopards and lots of other wild animals. Perhaps it's that they are (dare I say) smarter than us? I'm not sure, but there certainly is something magical about them.

The Queen Charlotte Sound on the northern part of New Zealand's South Island is home to 5 species of dolphins of which we were lucky enough to see 3 today and even luckier that one of them was the rarest dolphin in the world (and also the smallest): the Hector's dolphin. But I think the luckiest part was the opportunity we had to jump into the ice cold water and have pod of Dusky dolphins swim within feet of us! To say that it was incredible is an understatement. It felt like a dream!

The boat that took us out onto our dolphin swimming expedition is run by marine biologists, had scientists onboard and follows the strictest of conservation rules, laws and etiquette. As serious as these procedures were followed and as respectful of the dolphins as they were, we had an equally fun and goofy time putting on a show for the dolphins serenading them to spark their interest and, hopefully, their playful curiosity. Have you ever sung to a pod of dolphins?! I laughed so hard I nearly chocked on the water!

Once we were back on board and heading back into the Picton harbour a small pod of bottlenose dolphins emerged and surfed the wake of the boat for a few minutes before giving us a final wave farewell.

Back on dry land it was time to hit the saddle again and move on to our next destination.

A quiet and extremely pleasant cycle along the Queen Charlotte road brought us to the small town of Havelock where....

...our plans to continue pedaling for another 20km came to an abrupt halt the moment we passed by this place:

Yes, that's a giant pot of mussels on the roof! And yes, they are indeed giant and green! This harbour is the world capital of the green-lipped mussels and they are DELICIOUS! Needless to say, we pitched our tent nearby and booked ourselves in for a helluva dinner that sure beat our usual camp food fare!

Tomorrow we are cycling to the Abel Tasman National Park which is supposed to be beautiful....just like everything else in New Zealand!