Whale watching

I had a bad night’s sleep due to the lack of fruit in my diet at the moment. I slowly pottered around, sorting things and when I had breakfast, I spoke to Laura, who was German, and she is going to Fiji, so I gave her some tips about what to expect when she arrives there.

A small market was on, near where I was staying. It was a mixture of car boot, homemade food and craft stalls. I chatted to the first stall holder who said that she loved Emmerdale and had watched Coronation Street from when it first began. She let me have a plum to taste and I bought a bag for 2 NZD. There was a man selling strawberries, I had a taste and was nearly going to buy some until he said the price – 10 NZD!!!

I saw some cushion covers and decided to treat myself and bought 2 with birds on to match our new front room sofas.

It was a bit of a blustery day with an overcast look at first but it slowly brightened up. I headed towards the whale watcher building and the trips were showing as pending and when I checked in, the staff advised me to ring at 3. I walked to the hislop cafe and reserved a table as yesterday was extremely busy. I then walked to the new world supermarket in search of ginger to settle my stomach and cheaper sea sickness tablets than what was available at the chemist.

The weather was breaking into a calmer, sunnier afternoon as I walked back to the cafe. I decided to try the tomato and lentil soup after I asked for a small taster. Afterwards I had the mouth watering kiwi and ginger cake.

I decided to walk back to hostel where I chilled then I walked back to the whale watcher tour building. There on the screen was the word ‘cancelled’ against 2 tours which included mine. The company offered a refund and a nature tour, at half price,so I rebooked to do that.

At 4pm I checked in and the nature tour was still going ahead. After a safety briefing video, the bus took me to the boat and we headed off. Albatrosses and penguins were pointed out as the boat lightly buffeted against the waves. The boat came to a stop after 15 minutes and a pod of common and dusky dolphins appeared. The captain had an instrument that could be used to listen to the dolphin squeaks and I heard the dolphins clicks and whistles!

After 10 minutes of observing the dolphins, the boat headed off again for about 10 minutes and then a Hector dolphin was spotted, I was the only one who was quick enough to see it disappear under the bow of the boat. It was not seen again and it was too quick for me to take a photo.

The boat then went at full pelt, crashing through the waves, it was very turbulent for another 10 minutes and then the shout came from the crew, orcas! There was a mummy and baby who swam close to the boat at first then they saw underneath and then around the boat. It was sensational and then after 10 minutes, the dazzling whales swam away and the boat headed back to shore. The captain said that she wanted to keep it as a surprise as it is rare to see ocras as the whales travel a lot and do not feed in one particular spot.