Dolphin and Whale watching in Auckland

Dolphin and whale waching and been something I really wanted to do and I finally had te opportunity to do it in Auckland. After a hiccup-the first day i went they were all sold out even though i was told the previous day that there would be no problems!-I finally got to go one friday morning/afternoon. After a midmorning snack of none other than icecream-Im beginning to think that Ireland is the only place that doesnt do good icecream!- I set off for the boat in auckland harbuor for a 4 and a half hour trip of exploring for dolphins and whales. Not only was the day stunning, the guys that were doing the tour werent too bad either-they give you good value for your money the Kiwis!! We set off out to see the sun shining and lots of fresh air. We saw loads of penguins birds Islands and other boats but after 2 hours there was still no sign of either dolphins or whales. At this stage i was beginning to think I had wasted my money even though I we get a voucher to come back for free-but with only 10 days in New Zealand I wasnt really prepared to spend another day out on the hunt for dolphins and whales. But ALAS-always wanted to say that word- we get some hope when the driver thinks he has seen dolphins and whales up ahead. Now as we didnt have binochulars like he did, I was still a bit skeptical about it, but he didnt lie. Withing 10 minutes we were surrounded by more than 20 "common dolphins" swimming up and around the boat jumping around and racing the boat. It was so amazing. I couldnt stop taking pictures my camera actually went into a spasm. They stayed for ages around the boat, until we stopped the engine so as to not scare away the whale which we still hadnt seen.

After a few minutes it slowly came out of the water. We had to be super quick with our cameras as it only stayed above water for a few seconds. There was pushing and running across the boat, like girls fighting over the very last pair of designer shoes reduced to 50 euro... you get the picture. We saw the whale a few times after that and before we began to head back to Auckland we saw the mother whale and her baby calf. It was the most incredible thing. So Beautiful. I may only have seen them very briefly and may not have gotten the best pictures but I absolutely loved it. The outing was completely worth while, the day was completely fabulous, all until i got home and realised that I had a 10% discount voucher in one of my books! I couldnt believe I never looked! I contemplated going back and asking for my money but thought I would probably just be laughed out. Not only did I get to see whales and dolphins I also learnt some amazing things about dolphins and water and all that enviroment stuff.. It was such an enjoyable day!