ACROBATICS: Dolphins frolicking among boats and swimmers off Motuarohia/Roberton Island. PICTURES/STEPHEN WESTERN
ACROBATICS: Dolphins frolicking among boats and swimmers off Motuarohia/Roberton Island. PICTURES/STEPHEN WESTERN
A group of overseas visitors haven't been able to wipe the smiles off their faces after a pod of dolphins frolicked with them for hours in the Bay of Islands last week.
Charter operator Stephen Western, of Russell, was sailing with a group of guests on his yacht Kingfisher whenthey spotted a pod of four or five dolphins. They watched their antics for a while then continued to Lagoon Bay, off Motuarohia/Roberton Island, and moored there because of a lack of wind.
Soon afterwards the pod appeared in the bay and spent the next three hours leaping from the water in pairs and jumping over swimmers' heads. Mr Western's guests, from Germany, France and the UK, saw the passengers on other boats pile into the water and asked if they could get in too.
It was hard to say who was most entertained by the interaction, the dolphins or the humans, Mr Western said.
"The guests have smiles on their faces they still haven't got rid of," he added.
He was on the water almost daily over summer, but it was the best display he had seen since 2009. Among his guests was a German photographer who had been working with Northland orca expert Ingrid Visser.
Friends reported seeing a similar pod playing with swimmers at Oke Bay, near Rawhiti, the day before.
Swimming with dolphins is banned when calves are present, but this pod consisted entirely of adults.
