This blog recalls some of the experiences I had during a four-year friendship with a dolphin that lived at Onekaka, Takaka.
I thought I'd write these memories down while they're still accessible and will add to this blog as time and memories permit.
As this has a rough timeline about it the latest updates are down at the bottom of the page.

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I first met the dolphin after the second Onekaka Festival in 1989. After a night of festivities, a friend mentioned the dolphin at the old wharf down the road; so I ended up on Onekaka Beach watching the sun come up.

As the first rays broke across the water the dolphin leaped once, twice, three times into the air, incredible! Later, when the day warmed up I went out to meet her.
A large blurry sharklike shape appeared, stirring primeval fears in me; suddenly, she was circling around me, blurry and amazing.

I was heading up to Wellington the next day to sell some carvings. When I returned, I was kitted out in 7mm of full wet suit, plus mask, snorkel and flippers and a good dose of enthusiasm.

We met again and what a revelation it was to get a good look at her. The interaction was pretty low key and remained so over the next few weeks, though I did get closer and she became more trusting of me.
At the end of this time, I flew overseas for a few weeks.
Upon my return, I soon headed over Takaka Hill from the Baton Valley where I was staying, drove to Onekaka and swam out to meet her. WELL! I was very much in displeasure. I got snubbed bigtime.

The next day she had moved to Paton's Rock (several kilometres away) so I tried again. Talk about change. She'd let me know she had hurt feelings. Now it was "let's boogie".

After racing around for a while she dove down, so I followed to find her resting her head on a clump of seaweed, I reached out and touched her for the first time, running my hand down her back...

I promptly burst into tears... Nuff said, okay!

I floated to the surface with her swimming round me, then she cruised away (probably muttering comments like "daft bugger" in dolphinese). After that, it was over for the day.
From then on, I spent more and more time with her, growing closer and closer. The barriers had started to drop.

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Some Background- She was a shocker for stranding, at least 8 times on record though I don't think that includes Ross's first rescue. It happened so frequently at first, we reckoned it was her way of getting attention.
The first instance I know of was when a local fisherman (Ross) helped her back after she stranded on rocks near Tukurua Beach.

Above:   Dolphin rescue from Onekaka Estuary, April 1992.
The wet-suited person on the right is myself and on the the other side of the dolphin is Pounamu, my wife. The child on the far left is Shanti, my eldest son and the girl next to him is Jessamy, my eldest daughter. To the right rear of her is Isaac, Pounamu's eldest son.

Above:   Myself and Pounamu helping her to regain her equilibrium, Jess is to the left.

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She acquired many names: "Old Scarry" from the scars gained in her strandings; "Aihe" (which is Maori for "Dolphin") and "Dorrie". We also called her "Mokemoke" (which means "Alone"). I got the impression that names meant a whole lot more to us humans than to a dolphin.

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Part of my writing this is from a promise I made to Wade Doak.
After a couple of years I found a contact for Wade and sent him a letter, the result of which was him coming to Golden Bay to meet the dolphin. We took the housetruck to Onekaka and spent a couple of days with her.

Above:   Wade Doak taking a photo of the dolphin. The old Onekaka Wharf is visible (far left), with the old piles and sandspit to the right.

Above:   Ross came down with his boat and I put on an aqualung for the first time. Ross towed me out ot the wharf behind his boat with one very excited dolphin racing around me impressed by my sudden turn of "speed".

Wade had asked me if she had been talking to me but with 7mm of wetsuit over my ears I hadn't heard anything. One of the most enduring memories is of Wade wearing a pair of bright yellow flippers, wrapped around one of the old piles, squeaking to the dolphin with her excitedly shaking her head centimetres from his face squeaking back.

The weather was perfect and we had a ball though I found the aqualungs quite cumbersome compared to snorkel power.

As a result of our meeting, Wade got in touch with me (after the dolphin left Golden Bay) because he had a filming project with a French cameraman (Amar) and a film crew from TVNZ's "Wild South".

In the beginning I was cautious of pushing her limits but she always had the choice of swimming off if she felt like it...it was always me that got cold or ran out of steam.

She often stood on her head and I would dive down her body giving her a massage on the way. It took me a while to figure out that she was usually pointing to a clump of seaweed. It turned out that seaweed was on of her favourite things.

In fact she had to get direct by giving me a clump which and somehow I started massaging her with it. That had to be about her most favourite thing of all. That seaweed must feel really good to a Dolphin.

She loved being massaged, with the best spot being the fold of skin at the back of her pectoral fins; the one place I guess they can't reach themselves. She would tremble with pleasure when I got stuck in to that spot stretching her fin out to get "more thankyou".
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It was always wonderful to see the bliss on someone's face when they entered that space.

One day I was out with her when a local woman swam over to ask me if I could bring the dolphin in because she had brought a group of children suffering from cancer down to see "Aihe".

I led the dolphin in. Walking back through these children, the expressions of joy on their faces as she weaved amongst their bodies was an unforgettable moment.

One of the more memorable experiences that I had with her took body-surfing to exhilarating levels.

One day at Onekaka, there was a good swell of over a metre breaking along the sandspit formed around the old wharf pilings. I led the dolphin over to the waves. We lined up with my hand on her dorsal fin and we "kicked" in unison. Body-surfing suddenly took on an entirely new meaning.

We swam back around and lined up again for the next wave.
I could feel her whole body trembling with anticipation. As the wave reached the critical point, we were off again.

We caught many waves that day but as the surf got bigger and our excitement and risk-taking grew, we both got swept onto the wharf pilings and I had to call it off before one of us got hurt. (Probably me - but I was more worried about her).

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Time for an update- I've been in the workshop an the garden and not a lot else. I did manage a walk up a river hassling the trout and discovered some large pieces of a stone I'd found only small pieces of; it seems to be an Aventurine but the carving I'm working on reminds me of Fuschite because of the colour and chatoyancy, the jury is still out on that one. This is the first stone in a while that has got me this inspired and I will place a sculpture of an octopus on the sculptures page next week.
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Back to dolphins - She was a very friendly dolphin with almost everyone (though she did have her favourites) but on very rare occasions she would for no apparent reason stop a person from coming into the water.

I watched her one day (I have no reason why) swim over to a chap and wouldn't let him go past knee depth. She parked herself in front of him and shook her head and snapped her jaws at him until he backed out of the water. I talked to him later and he seemed like a nice guy so what upset her???

She had no intention of hurting him or anyone but she made her feelings very clear, once he left she switched back to normal.

Towards the end there were several tour buses a day trundling down the old gravel road offloading hoards of people to see her. Sometimes she would stay out of range, though if I swam out to her she was always receptive to me and we always enjoyed each others company.

I only saw her chase people from the water a couple of times, and heard of a few others. It was a very rare event and the reasons why were hers alone.

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The opposite of this was when she sometimes brought fish to people as gifts. Usually it was a Kahawai, often quite a large one. She once shot off and returned within minutes with a large squid which she offered me. I told her I didn't do squid so she took it back and munched it in front of my face with a cloud of ink swirling around me.

I don't think she had to work to hard for her food, there was always plenty of food around the estuary and wharf for her to eat. Often she would be in rest mode cruising a beat back and forth in front of the wharf until someone came out to play. Scientists tell us that they only half sleep maintaining an awareness. These times it seemed like she was in rest mode as the pattern and timing of her beat was very regular.

She liked other fish action though. One day we were lying together out beside the wharf when a school of kingfish swam below us. So off she went to see what they were up to, returning minutes later and slotting back under my arm, I guess they were just cruising.

Another day there were a lot of people at the beach when suddenly the water exploded, with fish flying everywhere. I grabbed a friends canoe an paddled out into the middle of a meatball where the kingy's had herded a school of small fish into the corner. It was bedlam, fish and dolphin flying everywhere; I even had a kingy jump across the canoe in front of me. The dolphin didn't seem to be feeding but she was sure excited, racing around like a lunatic and leaping out of the water - what a hoot.

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Hope you all had a great new year, stressfree and sunny.

The Japanese whalers are off again on their "scientific slaughter", thank god they backed off the slaughter of humpbacks.
I was thinking about a visit to Kaikoura last year when Sam and myself were taken out on a friends boat and ended up in a pod of orcas.

Orca off Kaikoura peninsula.

Cruising along beside an amazing being who looked back into my eye with such awareness that it was hard to say who was really looking at who.
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Not the best photo but it shows how close it came. The yellow boat in the background is the seal-swim boat.
Just after this photo the orca all took off at speed to a commotion in the distance- lunch probably. Man they can move when they want to.
I don't think I would have liked to be swimming with seals with a hungry pack of Orca around, could have got very exciting.

We as a race need to look to our responsibilities to preserve the wealth of our planet . It will need a huge rethink on our part to see past our greed and the great god dollar and appreciate the diversity that makes the wholeness of life.
To kill a highly intelligent creature under the guise of research so it can end up in the fish market is beyond intelligent belief.
It has become some sort of game with the whales being the ultimate losers.

On the Orca subject, I had another encounter years ago with the same intense eye contact.
I was at Whatipu beach near Auckland when around the corner came an Orca....No several orca, mother and child with auntie I assume. I jogged along the beach with them for a while until I was tired.
As I turned back I saw this fin rise up out of the water and keep on rising till well over a metre of dorsal was out of the water, this was one big critter. He tracked along just outside the waves which were very small that day and locked eyes with me. I jogged along never breaking eye contact and finding renewed energy paced this majestic being until my body had enough. Dumb fish....I don't think so.
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Here I will relate a second-hand story:
A friend used to fish out of Tutukaka out as far as the Poor Knights Is., although he only had a 16ft tinnie.
One evening in the middle of the wide ocean he was retreiving his gear when he heard a splash in the distance.
Thinking dolphin he tapped out a little ditty on his boat as he often did. Another splash closer and louder-"that must be some big dolphin".
He carried on retreiving his gear then leaned over the back of the boat to reattach his remotes- to find himself looking straight in the eye of a huge Orca staring straight into his eye just below the surface.
His hand came up and what was normally a two handed operation to start the motor became a one handed panic start.
Once the adrenalin had settled he thought about it and realised that he had probably fled from one of the most amazing encounters of his life.
If the Orca had wanted him it was no contest but the thing that got him was that it "knew" exactly when and where he was going to look over the back as it was there waiting, staring straight into his eyeball.

Synchronicity? From my experiences I don't think so. There is far more to these cetaceans than meets the eye - pun intended.
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Just been having an e-natter with Sheryl Gibney who also stayed with us when Wade came down. Here is a story she relates :

"My fondest memory of Aihe was on the second day I was there --  You and she were swimming off shore and it was very windy and I was not going to chance getting into difficulty going out to the both of you. 
Aihe brought you in while you were hanging onto her dorsal fin.  She pulled up beside me and you looked up and said  -- "she wants you to hang on".  I did and we swam parallel to the shore stroking her side.  She had her eyes closed -- I reckoned if she was a cat -- she would have been purring. 
She shook us off and you two return to deeper water.  Just as I was getting out -- she cut me off (I nearly sh.. myself -- she gave me a hellava fright). 
So here I was cuddling a dolphin on my lap not wanting to get out of the water.  I had a plane to catch in Nelson....  Bugger!"
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Thanks for the memories Sheryl. You also reminded me of her getting stroppy with someone to the point where they left the water.
(She later gave her daughter a fish - trying to make up?)
In her later years there were a lot of people coming to see her and she did get a bit more fussy and stroppy.
I have a feeling the chap I mentioned earlier did get a nip but no blood was drawn.
Dolphins certainly bite each other as part of their social behaviour, I'm probably more surprised that she didn't bite a few more people the way they treated her( - basically as a toy put there for their amusement. Most people though were in awe and enjoyed the magic moments.)
The last summer she was at Onekaka there were up to three tour buses a day coming to see her (small gravel road, not much parking, one dolphin - you can imagine the rest ).
So she had a summer overdose followed by a lack of interactions over winter. Must have been a wee bit confusing for her.
In all the time I swam with her she never showed any aggression towards me and I saw very little towards other people.

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Time for some more...
Been having a few discussions lately about their ability to choose whether they wish to interract or not. Ultimately they are free and can choose to come or go at will, they only seek us out through what seems to me to be a kind of loneliness. It's unsure as to why they become solo but they seek us out and perhaps we need to try and look at how they feel. They are not without intelligence and personality and we should try to see them as equals rather than an object or even a pet.

One day (in the 3rd year of our friendship if my memory serves correct) I was out by the wharf with Aihe. It was a big high tide and a long swim out but these 3 chaps ( German tourists it turned out later ) came out to see her. Typically I was draped across her back just mooching around exploring and we were enjoying each others company.
She wasn't really interested in these other chaps but with a bit of prompting from me she let one of them swim over.
He started to give her a rub but I could see her watching him like a hawk. As he moved down her body he came to her dorsal and tried to push my hand off. My thought was "out of here" and somehow she dropped out from under him then took off.
That was probably the longest dive we ever did under water surfacing at least 20 metres away.
After that no matter what ideas I had to the contrary she would not allow them to come any closer, there was a boundary that she maintained and that was it.
When I came in I had a natter to these guys in particular the chap who came over and asked him why he had pushed her boundary but he really didn't know. He I think saw her as an object but left realising that she had thoughts and feelings and he'd just peed her off. I hope they got another chance at it as I'm sure he wouldn't have made the same mistake again.

When she had lots of people with her she would often choose one or two people and spend time with them to the exclusion of all else.
If someone gets up their rostrum they have the whole sea to 'escape' to, they are not prisoners (unlike the captive ones we cage for our amusement which is another issue altogether).
In all the years of being with her I quckly came to being her friend, I never saw her as just a dolphin (except in the very beginning), which might explain the quality of the relationship I had with her.
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Time for an update. Recently I went up north and spent a couple of mornings with our current resident solo dolphin. He has been named Moko and he lives around the Mahia peninsula. Having been in communication with Dave Head we finally met and made our way to Mahia. The first morning we were lucky to be taken out by Bill Short in his boat and it didn't take him long to find him (originally called a she we have the photos to prove she is a he). What a lovely wee chap he is, about two metres of fun encapsulated in a dolphin body. He really is there for the interractions in his life, he didn't want us to get out of the water, becoming quite forceful and determined to block our attempts to get back on the boat. The second day dawned and Dave left me at Waikokopu...I stood out on a barriei of rocks and visualised "her" (hadn't had a look at that stage which goes to show you can't beleive everything the "experts" tell you). Within minutes I saw a fin and back break the surface heading for me so I quickly ran for my wetsuit and got in the water. Boy was he excited, I actually had to tell him to pull his horns in as I was getting a bit pummelled. Once he got the message and over his excitement it was all on, we both had an absolute ball. Dave got back with a young local girl named Kimmee and brought her out to meet Moko. It took her a while to get over her reticence but once she got into the session there was no stopping her. A lovely thing happened...A recently naturalised English couple by fortuitous circumstance arrived on the beach and the chap hopped in with his % yr old on his back. What a game wee girl holding her breathe and diving with dad to get a look at Moko. Later it was magic watching Moko towing the two of them with the wee lass holding on to the fin and her dad....Lovely.

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Yup that lump at the left is dad getting a double tow.
It was lovely to meet a new dolphin and see the similarities but also the differences, possibly explained by the difference in sex, the other two are females. I took notes this time so will add more to this as time goes on, I'll get back to Aihe but I also have Maui to talk about as well.
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TO BE CONTINUED...
We swam together for about four years, as often as I could manage. I have many fond memories of these wonderful times and will keep adding them to this blog.

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