Shorelines: Swimming with happiness

By COLIN MOORE

There are two ways you can go swimming with dolphins in Tauranga, I am advised. There is a modern, fast trip out into the dolphin-rich waters of the Bay of Plenty. And there's an old, slow boat, skippered by an eco-nut who once took his boat to Mururoa Atoll to give the French nuke testers a bit of curry.

On a gloriously sunny autumn day, I decide to take the slow boat so I'll have more time to stretch back and enjoy a day on the water.

What they didn't say, but soon became apparent when the crew didn't untie the line they were supposed to, is that Graham Butler is something of an old curmudgeon. We hit it off immediately.

The Gemini Galaxsea is an 18.2m steel-hulled motor sailer with a diesel engine small enough that its quiet throbbing doesn't intrude a bit, but is big enough to chug the ketch-rigged ship along at what Butler reckons is a good and unobtrusive dolphin-watching speed.

And, yes, the boat does look on the old side and in need of more than a lick of paint, but that's because it is a working boat and you don't find many of those that look all that flash, either.

Nor does the skipper, if it comes to that. There are no fancy, monogram-embroidered uniforms on this tourist operation.

But Butler has sailed the fully surveyed Gemini Galaxsea to Mururoa and he has been taking people dolphin-watching out of Tauranga for 14 years.

He is also a man who obviously hasn't lost the Kiwi art of using number eight fencing wire, or its maritime equivalent.

Bolted to the rigid canopy-style roof that shelters the wheel and aft deck, are two dolphin-watching chairs that began life as outdoor furniture.

The perch is only a couple of metres higher than the deck but it markedly increases Butler's horizon according to some navigational formula which I have forgotten. But the point is that the simple addition works.

So does his ingenious means of communicating with his crew as he scans the horizon for signs of dolphins. A length of 30mm flexible hose runs down the mizzen mast. When Butler wants the helmsman to turn a few degrees to port or starboard, he yells down the tube. The system is just as effective as it has ever been on ships at sea, and it doesn't need batteries.

It also gives a good idea of where this skipper is coming from. He's none too happy with some of the nonsensical ways of the modern world.

Which brings us to the dolphins. Butler is passionately protective of them and has been known to get offside with the Department of Conservation for berating them over their management of "his" dolphins.

It is a possessive slip that Butler freely admits to. And he makes no apologies to his customers, either. It is stated right there in the Tauranga Dolphin Company brochure.

"Our return time is not fixed, our mission is to get you in the water with dolphins, not adhere to 'human' schedule." Butler hasn't much time for "human schedules". We are guests in the dolphins' domain and we will respect their rules.

So we slip out of Tauranga harbour on dolphin time and stay that way all day. There are six passengers but Butler will put to sea with just one if that person is a dolphin nut with no time to spare.

You can put a young and friendly Japanese passenger in that class. She looks like a schoolgirl but Kazumi has just graduated with a degree in child psychology, has come to New Zealand on her own to stay at a farmstay near Tauranga, just to go dolphin-watching. .

The Gemini Galaxsea zig-zags north along the coast of Matakana Island towards Bowentown. There were dolphins out here the day before so it is a promising place to start.

Butler scans the distance for gannets, which is usually a good way to find dolphins because the birds and the mammals feed on the same schools of bait fish.

The problem today is that there is not a bird to be seen in a cloudless sky, nor any other sign of dolphins in the deepest of blue water.

Eventually the sails are hoisted to add a couple more knots of speed and our ship sets course for Tahua, or Mayor Island, 35km from the Tauranga harbour entrance.

The pohutukawa-forested island, the cause of centuries of squabbling because of its deposits of obsidian (tuhua), is a scenic and wildlife reserve. There is also a marine reserve at its northern end.

We cruise into South East Bay where the water is so clear that we can easily see the bottom at least 20m below and we don't need to be invited twice to go snorkelling. Butler reckons he has rarely seen it so clear.

Our Japanese visitor is ecstatic. The marine reserve may be at the other end of the island but there's no shortage of fish varieties for us to ogle.

Butler scans the horizon all the way back to Tauranga but this is one of those rare days when, as he said before we left the marina, you may miss out.

For myself, I am not too upset. Just a couple of weeks earlier I spent nearly an hour kayaking among a pod of dolphins off the Northland coast and it has been a relaxing and enjoyable day on the deep blue briny.

If Butler can't promise dolphins, or a money-back-guarantee, he does promise he will take you again free if you have the misfortune to be on one of those rare dolphin-less days.

Our Japanese visitor has booked to go tandem skydiving the next day but she is back the following day and when I ring Butler to find out how she gets on, he is chuffed.

It was the best dolphin-watching day all season, he says, with the encounters including large numbers of bottlenose dolphins.

When the girl came back on board after swimming with the dolphins she was crying. I don't mind missing the dolphins but I wish I had been there to see that joy. It would be enough to make any old curmudgeon happy.

* The Tauranga Dolphin Company, ph (07) 578 3197, 0800 836 574. All day trip, $90 an adult, $65 for under 13 years.

* Dolphin Seafaris, ph 0800 326 8747, email: bookings@nzdolphin.com. Three to four hour trip, $100 an adult, $85 under 13 years.

Dolphin Seafaris

* colinmoore@xtra.co.nz