Snorkelling with Seals in Whangarei – Day 334, Part 2

As soon as we anchor we see the fur seals being intrigued by us, jumping in the water and start playing. So one fur seal gets in the water, does that, then swims away. So we decide to get in the water with our snorkel and see what the fuss is all about.

Ok guys, usually one video per activity but after our scuba diving tour something happens so special to Robin that he just couldn’t resist making another video about it.

But first, right after our scuba diving tour we head to the largest sea cave in the world.

Riko!

That’s really cool.

Riko!

That’s cool.

The Rikoriko Cave at the Poor Knights Islands is seriously impressive it’s absolutely huge and is about 80m wide and about 30m long and after checking out the cave we go to a nearby rock where we spotted a few seals earlier and we just wanted to go check them out but once we see that their diving in the water Robin and some of the scuba diving team head in to join them in the water.

It’s quite often that experienced scuba divers use those day tours to do 1, 2 and sometimes 3 different dives in order for them to well practice their skills or take more underwater pictures and that’s exactly what they do today, but I am invited to join them snorkelling cos one of their team is gonna be snorkelling and those seals look super ready to lay with us.

We really make the effort to not be too intrusive and it looks like I am really close to them but I am just pushed by the waves and every time I get the opportunity I swim away from the rocks in order to gives them space but it doesn’t take long for the seal to join us in the water cos they are super curious about what are those big leathery stuff in the water with them. Well that’s us.

As soon as they are getting in the water, I am so excited. i have never seen seals that close up in my life even when we did some seal swimming tours beforehand and they are so cute an inquisitive right now I just can’t handle it it’s so cool.

At first the seals are a distance from us but it doesn’t take them long to come super close to us it’s so amazing how agile they are in the water, and because those seals are so agile in the water, it would be absolutely no problem for them to swim away from us and never seeing us again but they seem to really like our presence and seem to like the entertainment we’re providing so they are making sure to come back to us almost every single five minutes to check us out and it is always a surprise because they are super amazing swimmers so they just come from behind a fly past right by me, super close it’s awesome.

There are a few times when they swim right past me and touch me with the flipper it’s amazing how close they get to us and as I keep swimming around along the coral reef just because you know I want to explore the whole area, they are following me and they are checking me out every two second I can’t just swim on my own right now I am escorted by two fur seals it’s amazing.

I turn my head left, right, and every single time I see a seal flying right past me it’s amazing how agile they are they are flying around they are playing together and they also love drawing circles around me and actually trying to see if I can catch up with them it’s quite amazing cos I am trying to keep the gopro stabalised and making sure that I get a shot of them but they are so fast and so agile I am so impressed.

I really feel like I am their piece of entertainment for today I see their massive googly eyes looking at me and checking me out all the time and I am pretty sure with my big mask and snorkel I look really funny to them too but they don’t seem to mind the way I look they actually seem to mind the way I swim. I am really not as fast as they are and they don’t like it.

It’s so amazing to get to see marine wildlife right before my eyes behaving like they were in the wild you can see them interacting together you can see them catching one or two fish to eat it’s so awesome to get to see that it’s an experience like no other and it feels absolutely non-intrusive since those seals could go away really easily I am not the one following them, they are following me.

I have to say this is cuteness overload, my heart has never beat that hard in it’s entire trip even when doing so many skydives. I loved every moment with this encounter with those seals and best of all, it wasn’t planned whatsoever it wasn’t part of the tour whatsoever it’s just sometimes nature throws you a bone.

Robin gets back on the boat with a huge smile on his face and we head back toward the Tutukaka Marina.

There was so many fish it was amazing.

Red pigfish, red moki, strangers wrasse, leatherjacket… That wasn’t just a leather jacket floating that was actually a fish.

Old tire.

Shopping trolley.

That’s the UK for you, scuba diving in the UK: I saw a shopping trolley and old tire!

If you were scuba diving in the UK you would actually see a leather jacket but when you’re scuba diving in New Zealand you see a fish species called leatherjacket.