Hey!

I have a confession to make. . . despite a bumpier start, I am starting to fall for New Zealand.

The sea safari today was absolutely amazing and (apart from the skydive), the views were the most amazing I've probably ever seen. Better then the Blue Mountains, the Japan snow. It is another world out there on the ocean. We were out there for five hours.

As it was a safari, there was no guarantee of seeing anything and the search area was 2000km wide so it had to be narrowed down and it was quite clever how this was done.

First of all, we were looking for large mammals so supposedly they are out quite deep (tho apparently it is not unknown for orca whales bo be found in the gateway to the harbour aquaplaning). Generally about 40 metres deep, that is at least an hour away. It is at about this depth that apparantly the local green (see, I told you the sea was green. I was dead proud when the 'skipper' agreed with me this am. I was not sure if it was just my eyes!) current meets the tropical oceania blue waters. At this meeting place, all the food gathers and all the ecological activity takes place. Well, we hit the 40 metre mark and saw some penguins and a few birds but little else. So the crew decided to keep going but veering towards a piece of rock known as the gnattett rock which is where all the gnattett birds gather. Then we could watch to see where the birds were flying, that would be the direction of the fish. Fish equals dolphin food (baby dolphins have to eat every two minutes cos they are warm blooded but in freezing cold waters, eating is the only way they maintain their body temperature) so should equal dolphins. Th theory is that it is a lot easier to follow a flock of birds flying above us then it is to spot a pod of dolphins under the water (a bit like dad's theory for fishing). However- and this is just my luck-, for about the first time in seven years, no birds could be found at the rock (so maybe just as fallible as Dad's fishing theoryso we carried on a bit blindly but lucky we did, cos we found loads of dolphins. 

It was pretty amazing and because of the wave, the catamaran made, they swam with us. A couple of people even dived in to the cold, cold deep blue sea and swam with them. Maybe Claire should have done this a few months ago cos apparently dolphins can see through you, all of your organs and everything like an ultrasound. Apparently one girl went in swimming a few months ago and the dolphins ignored everybody but her. When she got back on the boat, the skipper said 'You're pregnant' and she was like 'no'. A few days later, she came back. The doctor had confirmed it and it looks like the little dolphins could see the baby in her!

Sorry to be a dolphin bore (luckily for you, we saw no whales) but they told us so much today. A dolphin lives on average 25yrs but in captivity just eighteen months and it was like the crew said, when you see the great big ocean in front of you what man-made thing could emulate that?! Apparantly depite knowing what my kidneys look like, dolphins are totally unaware of land. Their world is just one big swimmng pool!

Anyway enough about dolphins! As you may know, I am not the biggest fan of the Lord of the Pings, all the battles and things  but even I have to admit that the locations were amazing in the films so on Saturday, I am off to Hobbiton (which is quite apt as I actually enjoyed the story of the Hobbit and the first couple of chapters of Lord of the Pings until the birthday was over and battles began) but I'll try not to become too obsessed with Lord of the Pings when I get back.

Anyway, I hope that you all ok.

Sam

PS Ooh, one more dolphon thing. When they go to sleep, they sleep with one eye closed and one half of the brain asleep. The other is all concious and working and they rotate it when the other half is tired. Seriously, with some of the stuff they were coming out with, I seriously thought the crew might have been having us on today!