We had this plan to go for whale watching to Kaikaura. The place was 170kms from CHC. We had a car and a GPS, nothing can stop us. I reached the car and Hello! I am not able to start it. This is embarrassing. I went to call the chauffer and he started it at once. I asked him to let me try once and I couldn’t do that again. Even more embarrassing!! Later I figured out the use of breaks while starting the car.
We started for the whale watching center. This was probably the best way I had ever drove a car. Rail track follows all way long. Grass everywhere. Even the mountains are covered with grass. There are cow, sheep and deer farms along the way. The cows are so beautiful. The sky is clean and sun is bright. We are not feeling cold anymore. I felt like I have achieved my ultimate honeymoon driving destination. Soon the vast lands would finish and here come the much awaited ocean. Shades of blue in the water! Now one side was the water and other side was the mountain.
We reached Whale watching center wondering how someone can possibly track a whale down in the wide deep ocean. The group before us came back happy; they claimed to see couple of whales and few naughty dolphins. Impressive!
We started for the trip. I asked the guide for the best seat in the boat. I was determined to take that one. She said her seat is the best!
We saw Tiaki the whale with all his glory. He was 21m huge and really massive. There was a strange excitement in the air around him. There were two more boats other than ours. He doesn’t seem to care about any of these. He came on the surface to breathe and returned back in the blue ocean. Tiaki was on surface for about 10 minutes, giving everyone sufficient time to zoom in and zoom out.
We saw couple of groups of the dolphins too. They are naturally naughty animal. They were following the cruise, bouncing and jumping in their own way. It was certainly joyful to watch such a cheerful animal.
We then return back to the land satisfied. There was a train track right behind the whale watch station and the train timings were according to the trip schedules- or may be the other way round. We went to grab lunch. That was a handsome burger we had.
We drove back to the town and had the dinner at Two Fat Indians- they changed us $3 for the pickle!! Food was Okay.
We came back to the hotel, saw the pics we clicked that day and prepared ourselves for tomorrow’s big journey.
