Akaroa and the plastic bags!

Akaroa, Canterbury, New Zealand
Monday, November 25, 2013

Monday 25 November

Well hello, Auckland weather once more! We've had a good run and into life a little drop of rain must fall and there have been a few bucketfuls today. Akaroa locals were discussing the need for water for the garden in the supermarket this afternoon. Felt like home.
The Nature Cruise cast off at 1.30 just as the first drop of rain started to fall. I had a gut instinct that this might not be the trip of a lifetime; the calm sunny harbour of the previous day had a distinctly malevolent feel. However, the skipper of the Black Cat Catamaran was relentlessly cheery and after 30 mins I could have cheerfully cut his microphone cord. It was misty with low cloud shrouding the hill tops, but, it was a great day for positive people like us to see the harbour in its true state. Get the drift? The harbour is a flooded volcanic caldera and certainly interesting, but a quick overview would have sufficed. Our mission for the afternoon was to search for seals ( found two fighting on a ledge, can't say I blamed them, probably could hear the commentary), dolphins and the rare blue penguin. The boat headed out towards the harbour entrance where apparently the little dears are more likely to be found. Oh, wait a minute......was that a quick flash of dorsal fin at 9 o'clock ? We understand that it was, only I found nobody who managed to film it, not even the prowling Japanese trio with the enormous telephoto lenses trained at all angles. Not to be deterred, the boat chased the illusive Hectors Dolphin all over the bay and I became seriously alarmed as it started to pitch and roll and the cabin crew started to discreetly lay plastic bags in prominent positions. (What happened to the nice stout brown paper ones of yesteryear? ). Please bear in mind that at this point all four of us were clad in our wet suits ready to jump in and swim with the first foolhardy dolphin to appear. At one point Peter put his arm around me and looking concerned whispered in my ear ' if you find yourself heading overboard in a hurry, pass me the camera first!!'. By this point several people were a sickly shade of green and reaching for the bags and if it hadn't been for a sweet girl from Yorkshire who gave me a couple of sea sick lozenges I may well have joined them. As a finale, guess who turned up? Not dolphins, But Yep, you've guessed it , the ******** penguins. "Everyone dash to the starboard bow and there are 3 at 5 o'clock". Peter and I looked at each other, by this stage we were clutching one another for grim death; he whispered romantically in my ear once more " I don't care if there are 50 blank blank penguins out there, I'm not moving from this spot! ". I could only concur.
Geraldine, who was really bothered that she might be the worst sailor of all, triumphed and coped brilliantly, although like us all was pleased to see dry land looming up out of the mist.
Thankfully on returning to the jetty all stomachs calmed down and a cup of tea was found. The skipper was terribly apologetic re the lack of Dolphins and kindly handed out free vouchers for tomorrow's cruise to have another go! What a pity we are moving on tomorrow. Ours are now where they belong, in four pieces at the bottom of the bin and our mythical wetsuits are back where they belong!!!Read more