2/8 Claire – Whale watching

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Originally uploaded by blenkers

Chris and Meera took us whale watching this afternoon. I was expecting a sedate boat trip out of the harbour for a couple of kilometres and we were told that there is no guarantee of seeing whales when we were out. This boat wasn’t the sedate and gentle ride that I was expecting. There are three rows of seats that you have to straddle with bar handles in front of each person to hold on. Chris pointed out a sign in front of the wheel which stated a warning “caution, this vessel is frequently airborne” or words to that effect. The boat started, we were told to hold tight and he sped up… not once, or twice but three times until we must have been doing about 60miles an hour and as soon as you hit a wave or wake from another boat then this is when you leave the water. The boat is designed to do this and although it didn’t happen to us much it was brilliant. I think I enjoyed this nearly as much as watching the whales. So much so I am going to hunt down some extreme jet boats in NZ when we get there.

It didn’t take long to spot the whales about 5 mins and they take you towards them, turn off the engine and wait for them to pop back up again. The boat rocking and the whales coming up for just a few seconds means it’s quite hard to get a steady or decent shot so I was a bit gutted a didn’t get a better photo but I’m quite pleased with ones I did get. We probably saw eight whales at different points throughout the trip of about 45mins so we did well. It was a really brilliant experience and the boat literally leaves from about 100metres away from Chris and Meera’s front door.