New Zealand Travels (2003-03-12)

Up before the crack of sparrows and off to see the dolphins. I didn't hold out much hope of actually seeing one since Dusky dolphins are somewhat unpredictable. After a bit of faffing myself and Beth were in a boat dressed in bouyant websuits sporting grooving flippers and a mask snorkel kit. All very cumbersome and boy was it cold. Thank God for all those freezing showers after saunas. Anyway, we zoomed over the waves scouting for dolphins and saw the odd one or two about. (Feelings that this might be successful started to grow - not another Scotland cock-up). And then we hit paydirt: a small group of 10 dolphins were messing about a little way off our port side. Quickly we were ushered into the water with instructions to splash about and hum tunes to attract their interest. I won't even attempt to describe the noise, but suffice to say the dolphins decided to stay (our of morbid fasciantion perhaps?) And then it happened: a dolphine came right past me less than two feet away. I nearly jump out of my skin. You see, the water we were in was rather murky due to a recent storm so visiblility was down to about 10 feet. These dolphins were completely in their elements, and we were totally out of ours. They glided by effortlessly, coming in so close that you could just about touch them and then elegantly flicking away into the glooom. These dolphins stayed with us for half and hour and the memories will live within me forever. The moment where I was tightly circling with one dolphin (who seemed to take a shine to me) singing "Yellow Submarine" with the dolophine nodding it's head in time to the music ws amazing.

We all got back to the boat feeling very humbled, excited and with a deep respect for al things natural. And bloody 'ell were we cold. Fortunately, a hot shower was on board and copious ginger biscuits washed down with hot chocolate warmed us up pronto. After that we had the opportunity to pull up alongside a large pod of dolphins so that we could take some photos. I'm just glad that I brought the digital camera along 'cos I took loads.

A bit more faffing and we were back on the bus and heading North to Picton so that we could get the ferry across the Cook Strait which seperates the two islands. By this time I had still not contacted Julian (my old school mate who I'd not seen in 15 years who lived in Wellington) and I was planning a surprise visit to his office. However, I managed to locate his company in the ferry phone book and had a chat. He was bit surprised to hear from me to say the least. It turned out that the Super 12 rugby was on that night (NZ Hurricanes vs SA Stormers) and there was a spare season ticket available. Result!

So it was that Julian, a friend I had not seen for 15 years, met me at the ferry terminal with less than a half hours notice. He took me to the YHA, hung around while I cleaned myself up (still covered in sea water you see) and took me to see the game. I was sitting with his sister-in-law Janelle with a great view of the game (SA were in black and NZ played in yellow which was confusing). We chatted, chaeered and commented as the game progressed until the final whistle blew with NZ winning the match. A vital visctory and cause for great celebration. We went to a noisy bar for dinner and I had a very tasty steak. Julians wife, Sharon, was 6 months pregnant at the time and they still don't know the baby's sex. Appparently it has not revelaed itself to the cameras eye. So it looks like the nursery walls will be green.

After the meal, Julian and I went off to a pool hall and shot a few games. And then it was time for bed. In fairness Julian has grown up from the boy I used to know into a well-rounded man. He's married to a good Kiwi woman, has good friends and lives well. He's doing well at this job and he enjoys the work. All in all he's very happy that he made the move to leave England."