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me. I am also 100% sure he was attempting to communicate<br />

with me as I was with him. He pushed his nose under my<br />

body on numerous occasions, lifting me out of the water<br />

and dropping me back in. I noticed my mate on his dolphins<br />

back but I couldn’t round up the nerve to go that far but I<br />

did however get dragged around the water hanging on to<br />

his dorsal fin. We frolicked with these wild creatures for at<br />

least an hour and a half.<br />

We became tired and reluctantly started back to sure but<br />

the dolphins were having none of it. They didn’t want us to<br />

leave and swam in front of us, nudging us back out to sea.<br />

They laid in front of us causing<br />

We frolicked<br />

with these wild<br />

creatures for at<br />

least an hour<br />

and a half.<br />

us to climb over them or dive<br />

under them to get past them.<br />

When we eventually got back to<br />

the beach, we stood side by side<br />

in absolute awe at what we had<br />

just experienced watching the<br />

dolphins, but it was not quite<br />

over yet. The two of them were<br />

doing the backward dance on their tails with the highpitched<br />

laugh like sound that I had only seen dolphins do on<br />

TV. Swam back towards us and repeated the performance a<br />

number of times. We were absolutely sure they were saying<br />

goodbye to their newfound friends.<br />

Steve Morris the New Zealand distance swimmer described a<br />

similar experience to mine with an Orca which is many, many<br />

times bigger than my dolphin. He said that he and his Ocean<br />

Swim Team were swimming of Mount Maunganui when a<br />

pod of 8 Killer Whales were spotted nearby.<br />

He said that he had first saw Orcas at a distance some years<br />

ago at the same location and since then had dreamed of a<br />

close-up encounter. His dream came true in April 2021. He<br />

describes the Orca gently nudging his torso. “Yes, we were<br />

face to face, and they were ‘speaking’ to me,” Morris said.<br />

He posted video of the event on face book where the Orcas<br />

vocalizations can be heard.<br />

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