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Day 148- The hostel provided breakfast which was good and on offer were waffles! You were given a cup of pre-made waffle mix which you then poured into the waffle maker and then drizzled with honey- if you so wish. They were delicious but Eve isn't a massive fan of waffles so she stuck with a slice of toast. There was a market on in the centre so we went along and had a browse about. It was really good selling everything from fresh veg to hand crafted goods. With it being the weekend and me and Eve in need of some good hearty English food, my Mam bought some fresh veg to attempt a Sunday dinner with whatever cooking facilities we had at the next hostel. We then headed back and checked out so we could be on our way. We stopped off at Blenheim and popped in the supermarket as we weren't sure what to expect from Kaikoura. It was a rough journey along windy roads and took around three hours in total, Eve had her bands on but still felt very sick however she managed to made it to Kaikoura and we checked into the Alabatross Hostel. We headed straight out and walked along the coast to the tourist info centre. Eve stayed outside and when I came back out I found her being sick. We had a feeling her sickness was due to more than just motion. She felt a bit better after though and we continued along to the Whale Watch Kaikoura ticket office to book our tour the next day. We were luckily enough to wangle Eve and Jonathon as children so that saved us a lot of money. We strolled back through the town and popped into a few shops along the way. Once back we made spag bol for tea and me and Eve sorted through some photos.
Day 149- Our tour departed at 7:15am so we made sure we were up early enough and checked in on time. We then wacthed a short video about whales and the environment which was followed by our briefing. After she finished we were then herded onto a bus which would take us to the other side of town to the port which we would depart from. We were all pretty excited and we set off in search of some whales. The one we were expecting to see was the fourth largest in the world- the Sperm Whale. They are usually found in deep water trenches in the Pacific ocean where there main food source is. However 6 mile off the coast of Kaikoura is the continental shelf, the point where one tectonic plate meets the other creating a huge underwater cliff. This cliff creates water currents as cold water drops down deep and forces warmer water up to the surface taking with it lots of food and nutrients for marine life, in our case- whales! We set off at a blinding speed and it wasn't the calmest of waters so all of us- in particular Eve, felt sea-sick. Eve lasted around 30 minutes and after the 2 hours it took to get out to sea approximately a third of the boat had thrown up it was that bad. For the few who had sterner stomachs we could see all sorts of marine bird life including the massive Wandering Albatross. Poor Eve wasn't coping too well but when the time came, she was right up at the front with me. A huge shadow appeared on the surface and out came this beast. It blew a huge spout out of its blowhole and remained at the surface for around 15 minutes. We could only see two thirds of it but it was enough. We snapped away and gaped in awe at this magnificent creature. Then when it had its fill of oxygen it humped over and flung its flipper in the air splashing it down as it dove back to the depths of the ocean. On the way back to shore we were fortunate to see a pod of Dusky dolphins. There must have been about 40 of them and they loved the limelight. They ducked and dove under the boat, diving into the air and spinning around and playing with each other. Fantastic. It was so much fun watching them and it was scarily tempting to jump in with them. Once back on dry land, we all gave a sigh of relief, feeling sick as can be. Whatever Eve had, wasn't helped at all by the boat ride but she had a great time and wouldn't have missed it for the world. We drove back and Eve went straight to sleep, she was shattered. The rest of us just walked down to the town again and had a look at a few more shops, catching a quick drink in the pub. Back at the hostel Eve was still flat out but she managed a bite to eat and we all went up to a lookout point for some great views. In the evening we rustled up a Sunday dinner using one electric hob and a bizarre frying cooker contraption. Either way it was gorgeous and went down a treat, Eve even managed a plate. That night we watched Disney's Tangled and had an early night.
- comments
gordon yea, we got some great photos of them dolphins.
mam x ah eve... can just imagen how you felt xxxxxxxx