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Published: April 14th 2006
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Single lane bridge
on the way to Hanmer Springs Darlings we have had the best day - whales! just amazing - the boat was cool - although as predicted no bar - not big enough! Lovely crew, fast boat - and the sun was shining - it was warm. Just totally blown away by seeing whales, they are amazing creatures, we saw three different whales - all sperm whales. Just can’t get over how huge they are, massively heavy, and amazingly graceful as they dive down, it’s brilliant watching them prepare to dive, their heads are so heavy and they manouevre till they literally stand on their head! We got really close and was too mesmerised to panic! We were lucky ‘cos on the way back we saw loads of dolphins! and a huge albatross - who apparently weigh as much as an average dog - not as cute though. This part of NZ is so much more friendly that the North, looking forward to walking on glaciers next - hadn’t noticed till this morning we have snow capped mountains in view from the motel!
Yeah, it’s time to use that hateful word, the whales truly were awesome, which made it all the more strange that not one of
View from motel
and the sun shone too the 30 or so people on the boat actually used the word. Perhaps they were overawed. It really was a very good day, we were originally booked to try and find whales yesterday but it got cancelled, ostensibly due to sea conditions, but it may also have to do with the number of people due to go. Anyway as we ended up with nothing to do yesterday we drove to Hanmer Springs, a spa town about 120kms from where we are staying. As has become the norm, the journey was heaps better than the destination. H.S. was very twee, centred round some spa pools with naturally heated water, more holiday chalets than residential homes, really just a tourist town but with great views. The journey there and back though was fantastic, long straight roads for miles with snow-capped mountains in the distance, suddenly changing to tight windy roads with a sheer rock face on one side and a sheer cliff drop on the other with some single lane bridges just to spice things up that threaded their way up through the valleys. Took the journey quite steadily on the way there, but with foolhardy confidence bolstered by the need to
Sperm whale
taking in air get back for the latest instalment of American Idol the poor rental car got seriously thrashed on the way back. Don’t think they have speed cameras much on the country roads here and you could see if there was a cop car in sight. At least I hope I got away with it. And yes, I know American Idol’s a long way behind here, but if anyone dares email whats happened.........
The whale watching today was better than we could have hoped for, the people running the trip really have their hearts in it, apart from the fact that their business depends on the continued existence of the creatures they are passionate about their welfare and take every opportunity to inform their passengers about the threats that they face. It must have made fairly uncomfortable listening for the japanese tourists on board. The same for any norwegians or icelanders but it was more difficult to tell if there were any of them. The boats use water jets rather than propellors and use hydrophones not sonar to detect the whales presence, and the fact that they have been seeing the same whales for years seems to suggest that the activities of
Sperm whale
going vertical the whale watchers is not detrimental to their welfare. I’ve got some fabulous movie footage of the whales but you’ll have to wait because getting a good enough connection to upload to the website will cost an arm and a leg here, and upload speeds seem to be limited to 128kbps. No point keeping bitchin’ about it, maybe when we get to Dee’s (pretty please!).
The south island has made such a difference to our view of this country, it’s not really any more sophisticated or any such thing down here, but the people are more friendly, more talkative and seem generally more at ease with themselves. And the landscape is even more stunning than up north, big plus is that the weather is set to be good for the Easter break, may even get some beaching in, but the water is way too cold to even think about getting wet. Happy holidays everyone.
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Pammie
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Wonderful whales
Hi just catching up on your blogs, what a fab trip seeing the whales so close and dolphins, great photos!