Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Sophie And Tami Were Here
Thursday 31st May
Journal entry brought to you by Tami (annoyed with Kiwi Experience for not knowing their own pick up times)
Sophie and I were meant to get picked up by the bus to go to Kaikoura this morning at 7.15am, so we left the hostel at 6.55am (SO early) and walked to the pick up point that is supposedly nearer than Base. We got a bit lost, but still arrived there at just after 7.10am, and there were three people there waiting for a shuttle who had been there for 20 minutes and hadn't seen a bus, so we knew we hadn't missed it. About 20 minutes later the bus still hadn't come, so we rang Base hostel which we knew was another stop, and apparently the bus was outside it, checking people in. We asked the man in Base to go and ask the driver if he was definitely going to do the pick up from Foley Towers where we were, and he said he was. Clearly we had been told the time that the pickup would have been had the driver done Foley Towers first, and THEN Base, but he had chosen to do them the other way round. About 45 minutes later, we finally got picked up, 1 hour and 20 mintues from the time we first left our hostel in the morning. How rubbish is that? And it was FREEZING.
Anyhoo. We drove to Kaikoura and signed up to do a whale watching trip that afternoon. James was on the same bus as us but he didn't want to come whale watching and went for a walk instead. We watched a short briefing video, and then went off on the boat.
Almost immediately, I began to feel sick. The boat was enclosed and you had to stay inside while it was moving, and the sea was fairly rough. I looked sideways and could tell that Sophie was also feeling how I was, and we sat in despairing silence, not talking, aware that opening our mouths could result in an unfortunate projectile vomiting onto the unsuspecting people in front. As soon as the boat stopped with the chance of a whale sighting, Sophie and I practically ran outside and gulped down the fresh air. Too soon though we were ushered back inside to go to a different place where there might have been a whale. What seemed like forever away, we were eventually allowed outside again. We sawa sperm whale on the surface of the water, it was pretty cool to be honest, really big, but I was feeling soooo sick that after taking some photos, I was kneeling down on the deck trying to stop shaking. It was horrible. When we were told to go back inside, Sophie and I were the last ones to go back in, and immediately the feeling came back. We saw another whale a bit later, which was really cool again, but I was still feeling rough as. Then a bit later on we saw some dolphins, loads and loads of them! They were so cool, properly jumping around the boat and swimming alongside. Really cool. If you want to see any photos, you can click on this link to do so: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5612&l=3dd64&id=503796050
When we got back on dry land (which was not a MOMENT too soon), Sophie and I (stupidly) went into another bookshop. I bought two more books. I'm not going to be able to lift my bag soon. We then went to get chips with James, as Kaikoura supposedly boasts the best fish and chips of New Zealand. The chips were very nice, although the ketchup was gross. While in the chip shop we got chatting to four guys, Oli, Amos (who was celebrating his birthday), Bill and Niel. We decided to watch a film later that evening and then James and Sophie and I went back to the hostel and had ice cream on the way, as per usual. A bit later on we all watched Man on Fire together in the TV room, which was okay, but really sad. I'm sure Sophie would like me to add that it had "That annoying Dakota Fanning" in it too. I then went to bed, I had a headache (again, getting rather a lot of these right now. Sophie thinks I'm eating too much cheese. She's probably right, think I'll cut down). I went to bed, Sophie stayed up and watched half of The Girl Next Door. I think Elisha Cuthbert is really pretty but her eyebrows are so odd, they don't seem to fit on her face.
Hope you're all okay (-:
- comments