It's a winter of discontent for lonely Moko

Moko encouraged his young friends to pat him. Photo / Linda Coulston

It could be a case of the wintertime blues for Mahia's most famous resident, Moko the bottlenose dolphin.

He is showing definite signs of loneliness, says Gisborne resident Linda Coulston, who has been following the progress of Moko since he first started frequenting the peninsula about 18 months ago.

After being swamped with people trying to catch a glimpse or a touch of him over the summer, Moko has been going out of his way for company over the colder winter months, including keeping one swimmer in the water longer than she wanted to stay over the weekend.

As well as his favourite Mahia Beach, Moko has been cruising the waters of Taylors Bay looking for company. He was so delighted to find Tewai Coulston and Aidan Stewart, both 11, in the water that he caught them a big kahawai for a present while they were on holiday there.

Mrs Coulston told the boys not to touch Moko, but it seemed that was exactly what he wanted, showing with body language that he wanted to be patted, and staying in the same position for a good minute when they started doing so, Mrs Coulston said.

He also got to play his favourite ball and push-the-body-boarder games as the boys frolicked with him despite the bout of heavy rain that day. The boys played happily with him for about an hour and then again later on in the day.

The water was so murky Mrs Coulston does not believe Moko would have had much visibility at all in the shallow water right by the beach but he was still wanting contact with the two lads freezing in the conditions trying to play with him.

"You could feel his loneliness," Mrs Coulston said.

- GISBORNE HERALD