NZ: Day 12
Quite possibly the best day we’ve had yet. First thing was seal swimming. We put on wetsuits and snorkeling gear, climbed into a little boat with about eight other people and motored out to the rock formations where the fur seals hang out. Once there, you slide into the water and swim over to the seals area and the seals come out and swim with you. It was pretty amazing to be out there with them. The seals weren’t afraid of us at all and were completely aware that they were far more capable in the water than we were. So they dove and weave around as they chose, and we swam a little and watched them. The best was when two of them came out together and were playing, so we got to watch them close up. The water was a little cold, but not prohibitively so in the wetsuits so staying out there for over an hour wasn’t a problem. Came back into town and got some lunch at a Thai restaurant. I had puia, which was good even if I still don’t know what sort of seafood it was. Seemed cuttlefishish.
Then it was time for the whale watching tour. They warned us that the surf was really choppy, but we were fine with a little fun on a boat. So we went motoring out looking for sperm whales. The guide told us that the average tour saw two whales. We ended up seeing four, totally, although the last one dove right as we approached it. The way sperm whales work is they come up to the surface for about ten minutes to recharge and then dive for around forty minutes to an hour. So you can see them briefly as they restock on oxygen and relax, but if you miss them, they’re going for a long time. They’re pretty cool to look at, over forty feet long with massive heads. As they dive, you get a cool tail flip above the surface which then generates a massive upswell as they dive, stilling the surface of the ocean in the immediate area. After the fourth whale, our guides took the boat back into shallower water to look for other sea life. We swung by the seal colony again and were able to get some pictures this time (since we were lacking a waterproof camera earlier). As we left the colony, a pod of dusky dolphins showed up and started playing around the boat, leaping and diving in front of the prow of the ship. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. They were absolutely amazing.
When we got back we got in the car and headed up to Picton. We got dinner at Suemus, a seafood restaurant which had the worst service of any restaurant I’ve eaten at in NZ. Waited over twenty minutes for them to even come and take our order and then our food took forever. There was some amusement provided when a fat, angry, drunk Kiwi tried to pick a fight with a British man who had asked him to stop smoking. The cooks pretty much had to drag him out of the restaurant. We were staying in the Atlantis hostel that night, which I think wins for worst hostel we’ve stayed at. We had a private twin room, but it was off the main dorm room and had no windows. The lack of ventilation meant it smelled something like a locker room, plus the bathrooms were on the ass end of creation on the other side of the hostel. The beds creaked liked you wouldn’t believe and the walls were thin, so we could hear the enthusiastic Germans next door talking till all hours. Thankfully it was a short night, since we were up at 3:30am to catch the ferry back to the North Island and Wellington.