I used this company twice whilst on holiday in Picton in January - once to do a nature cruise, just myself, which incorporated dolphin watching (no swimming on this trip as it was an afternoon trip and they only do the swimming with the dolphins in the morning), cruising the Queen Charlotte Sound, bird and seal watching and a walk on a beautiful island (can't remember the name) which is a bird sanctuary.

On this trip the staff were very friendly and informative particularly the Captain, John I think his name was, the boat was comfortable, we saw plenty of dolphins relatively quickly , we also saw Kingshags at close range (very rare so this was excellent) and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.
Afew days later I decided to treat my two teenage daughters to swimming with the dolphins and went along too with them. This was an experience everyone should do once in their life.
The staff were fantastic although the captain was not as friendly as on the first trip and I felt he gave some confusing information about where things were located in the Sounds. The other staff gave excellent safety nformation about what do in the water, and everyone was clear about the hand signals and sounds the staff would use to instruct swimmers in the water. I found the briefing very useful indeed particularly about how to breathe deeply when snorkelling - particularly as the water was so cold.

There was considerable trouble finding any dolphins though - they are wild after all, so this is not unexpected, but it can be frustrating nonetheless. It took 2 hours before any bottle-nosed dolphins, with whom you can swim, were spotted (we were however lucky enough after about 1 and 3/4 hours to see Hector dolphins - again, very rare, so felt very priveliged). However the staff kept everyone's spirits up during this time and did repeat that the company have a policy of only charging you for a cruise if you don't see any dolphins which I thought was fantastic policy - well done. They also ran a competition to see who would spot the first dolphin - it was not a staffer in the end but a passenger which was exciting!

Eventually we were all rewarded with a huge pod, with in-season males giving awesome displays for their female dolphin love interests- rolling on their backs, doing flips, and spectacular dives etc etc. We got to swim with them three times. The dolphins were on their way to a feeding site so weren't particularly interested in our group of swimmers but I did see a dolphin under me twice which was exciting, but they didn't hang around for long.

The best view of them that day to be honest was from the boat - as they were very keen to swim along side the boat on their way to their food and many of them swam under the bow and entertained us all with their antics.

One negative, not anyone's fault, is how cold the water was when we swam. I felt this was understated by the staff, or maybe we just feel the cold more (although others on the boat complained how cold it was too). I assume because we had to go into the outer sounds to find the dolpins the water might have been more than unusually cold when we got in to swim with the dolphins. - plus it had rained heavily the day previously with a strong wind - this might have had an impact. However I was completely shocked, as were my kids, by the freezing water - despite 6mm thick wetsuits and staff assurances the water was "warm" at 20 degrees (I found that difficult to believe). Putting one's face in the water to see the dolphins was very tough when it was so cold - and it was the middle of summer!!) Anyway, it was worth it, but do be prepared!!

I felt the cost was very reasonable indeed of both trips and overall highly recommend either of the trips.

Take food with you to snack on during both trips - you will get hungry out on the water on either trip, particularly if you do the dolphin swimming. We were starving afterwards - the adrenaline rush (and the shock of the cold of the water!!) is enormous and it makes you hungry.

Overall very worthwhile and thanks to everyone involved.