Wonderful Whales!

---

Mon 6th.
I was so disappointed at missing the whale trip that Jim has rearranged our schedule so that we can stay another 2 days, It's no haedship because this is a beautiful place. South American type mountains and a white tipped ocean crashing onto the beach. Albeit a black pebbly beach , with no swimming allowed. We are on the 2nd boat trip of the day to try and see the whales, so this means getting up at 5:30 am. It had better be worth it. We hang around at the whaling station till 7:30, waiting for the sea to calm down and then we board the bus to be taken to the harbour. In no time at all the catamaran is in open waters and they lower a microphone to listen for the whales. we're not sure if this was a gimic or not, but, no complaints, 10 mins. later we see our first whale. It is huge and we get so close to it. Amazing! When the whale dives, his tail is upright for a mere few seconds, and then he's gone. The captain somehow knows when this is about to happen, and all cameras are focused, waiting for this amazing sight. In all we saw 3 whales diving, and 1 that got away, so to speak. As if that wasn't enough, we saw 2 albatros, ducking and diving by the boat. Absolutely huge birds with a 4 metre wing span. It's a 3 = 3 i/2 hour boat trip, and on our way back, we were s fortunate to come accross a sea full of fdolphins. We went onto the top deck, and while they played Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World over the tannoy, we watched these magnificent creatures cavort all around us. Maybe New Zealand isn't so bad after all. Back to bed for a few hours then a walk around town. Even though we're not doing much, the time is flying by.

---