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Published: September 24th 2007
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Israel and I took a brief roadtrip on my days off this week. The main reasons for the trip were to do Whale Watch Kaikoura, find the black kite (a bird) in Blenheim and visit the Picton aquarium.
On Tuesday morning we headed off early to Kaikoura. We were on the waiting list for Whale Watch (We were getting on at a heavily discounted rate, so the paying customers had priority) but managed to secure seats for the 10.30 trip. The boat ride was good. Their is a slideshow thing playing so the 20 minute ride isn't boring and the seats are comfortable. Altogether we saw 5 sperm whales. A typical tour is 1 - 2 whales, so 3 and above is extra awesome. They weren't hugely exciting to watch, basically looked like big floating logs. The tails as they dived were the highlights. I managed to photograph 3 tails and video another. I'm glad I didn't have to pay full price. Although it was amazing to see the whales, I think swimming with the dolphins and/or seals is a better value choice for your marine mammal fix.
Click here to see my whale video After departing Kaikoura we headed up to Blenheim, stopping via
Lake Grassmere for Israel to look for birds. He didn't see the ones he wanted. I noticed that the people of Marlborough have no concept of road sense. There were a lot of speeding drivers on the hilly bits, some insane overtaking (and ignoring the merge signs at the end of passing lanes) and once in Blenheim, we encountered half a dozen pedestrians who would just walk into the road not checking for cars. Geez people, your town isn't THAT sleepy and quiet.
The first task in Blenheim was to check the Waihopai Valley for the black kite. We didn't see it. I did, however, stop by the American spy base to take some photos. As I was doing so, a white van starting coming down their driveway, so I ran away. By 'ran' I actually mean 'drove'. We stayed the night at Caryl, from fish club's, house where I had fun playing soccer with her budgie, which is named Bud. I want one now. In the morning we again visited Waihopai Valley, where Israel successfully saw the kite and I successfully took more photos of the spy base. We then drove to Picton.
The only thing we
did in Picton was visit the aquarium, which was ok. There is no way I would want to pay full price for it though. Ahh the joys of being in the tourism industry and getting into places for free. It might be more interesting once they get some lizards and stock up their seahorses a bit. They are thinking about getting some kiwi which will generate more revenue (all the tourists will want to visit) so they can have more tanks!
On the way back south we stopped at Lake Grassmere a second time. While Israel looked for his birds I took photos of Bob an old abandoned crane thing (named for the graffiti on his side). I think I've mentioned before that I really like Urban Decay/Exploration as an art form. I don't like the graffiti part, just the way nature starts to take over & break down old buildings, machinery etc. Also I don't like the idea of entering places I shouldn't (which is what most urban explorers do) so for me, Bob was a great chance to get some photos without doing anything wrong (cos he was just sitting by the side of the road). On
Spy base from close
Ooooooh, I'm at their driveway entrance the Tues Bob's door was closed but today it was open which I thought was strange. I also noticed that there were some keys in one of his ignition holes that looked really clean in comparison to the rest of his rusting body. After taking a series of photos, I got back in the car just as a van pulled up. Some serviceman jumped out and climbed up into Bob. Then to my amazement they started up his engine! I can't believe he was in working order! They rotated his tracks a little and it looked like they were trying to lift his crane part, which wasn't happening. After a few minutes, they pulled his door shut and drove off again. Very entertaining.
We decided we wanted some crayfish to eat so we bought half of one + some chips in Kaikoura. It was quite nice albeit expensive. We ate this at the seal colony and I caught some little rock pool fish for the aquarium. These were later rejected so are presently living at Israel's. One of them laid eggs though!
So that was my adventure. Ummm I am still in the process of identifying the fish
photos from Fiji so I will post a link to my flickr account once that's all done. I may also put more photos of Bob up on
Slack Ninja which is an NZ urban exploration site. Check it out for some cool pics of abandoned buildings around Christchurch & NZ.
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