Tags: dolphins, new zealand, auckland, safari, whales
We booked to go out with these guys whilst we were in Auckland, the marketing material stated that you had a 90% chance of seeing Dolphins and 70% of seeing whales or you got a voucher to go out again.
The Cruise takes about 4 ½ hours and goes out of Auckland Harbour into the Hauraki Gulf, one of the most biological and geographically diverse marine parks in the world, so the literature says with 22 species of marine mammals, almost a 3rd of the worlds population identified.
It was an overcast day at the end of April with rain forecast and on way out it was a bit choppy, some people struggled, whilst others of us enjoyed the thrilling ride bouncing the waves on the bow of the boat.
After about 2 ½ hours we spotted a pod of about 6 dolphins cross the bow and then disappear, we spent about another hour looking with no luck, the crew were really good checking on everyone and talking us through what they were looking for. Then they spotted some gannets flocking and diving in one particular place and headed for it, when we got there we found a pod of about 15 dolphins, they played in the bow wave of the boat for about 10 minutes then went on their way.
It was a great experience, we were all really thrilled that we had seen them, please see the video I took of them at the time.
We had an enjoyable trip back to Auckland harbour, all the time looking for dolphins but generally very happy with our brief but exciting sighting but the crew had another surprise in store for us as we arrived back. The said that although we had seen the dolphins it didn’t really match what they would have expected to see, the previous day around 100 dolphins and 4 whales were spotted, so they gave us all vouchers to go out again free of charge.
These were interchangeable with a trip to swim with dolphins in the Bay of Bays, and there was no time limit, so as long as they are in business when we go back to Auckland we can go out again free of charge.
Overall we were extremely impressed with Explore NZ Whale & Dolphin Safari and would highly recommend it to anyone in the Auckland area, my only advice is to go earlier on your trip then we did so you can take advantage of a voucher if one is issued.
We booked to go out with these guys whilst we were in Auckland, the marketing material stated that you had a 90% chance of seeing Dolphins and 70% of seeing whales or you got a voucher to go out again.
