January 2019 - Safari Highlights

The first week of January was a little quiet on the whale front but more than made up for it with groups of common dolphins enjoying the sunshine. We got to see some nursery pods with little tiny calves too! We see most common dolphin calves in the summer as the sea temperature is warmer, giving them a better chance of survival than in the harsher winter climate.

The whales weren’t gone for long and we had sightings of not only Bryde’s whales but also sei whales feeding in the Hauraki Gulf this month. Sei whales are a visitor to the area and we don’t see them all that regularly. It certainly put our crew’s identification skills to the test as the two species can be quite difficult to tell apart in the field especially if you don’t see one of the species very often! There will be a blog post coming later this month about these two species so keep an eye out for that.

We also had a visit from the orca one morning as they passed through the area. This encounter made the NZ Herald news.

Our two trips a day, every day have now ended but we will be running both morning and afternoon trips on weekends for February so now you have twice as many options if you were thinking of coming out with us during one of your Saturdays or Sundays. 

Things you can do:

– Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more videos

– Follow us on our other social media channels to stay up to date with the latest goings on in the Hauraki Gulf (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest)

– Use the hashtag or #aucklandwhaleanddolphinsafari or
#aucklandwhale to share your safari photos and videos with us