HAVING A WHALE OF A TIME!
Trip Start
May 09, 2005
1
9
25
Trip End
Ongoing
New Plymouth, Wellington, Jibber Jibber, and Christchurch,
New Zealand
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Anyway, after leaving Taupo, we headed to New Plymouth along the Forgotten Highway. It's a shame the highway hadn't been completely forgotten about and a new one built because it was possibly the windiest road I've ever been on -- and with me driving, more dangerous than sky diving or bungy jumping. We were just lucky the Silver Bullet MK2 was built for rallying -- it simply chewed up the bumps and spat out the bends!
When we arrived in New Plymouth it wasn't as big as I expected it to be. It was a bit like T. Wells, only it had a beach, and a few more Maoris kicking about. We only really stayed for the game, which was great (once again we teamed up with the opposition), and then headed off to Wellington the next day. However, I did manage to buy a ticket at the Taranaki game for the second test, for $600, which I thought was a pretty good deal... more of which later...
After NP, we headed to Wellington -- CAP-I-TOL CITI! Despite being the capital, it's pretty small and there didn't seem to be that many people around -- well, not in the bars anyway, which is where we spent most of the time... again! I did, however, manage to get my ear chewed off by this old New Zealand guy in a pub whilst watching the All Blacks Vs Fiji game. For the whole first half he was telling me about this REALLY INTERESTING book all about how Princess Diana really died.
1. FARM LAND!
According to the book she was abducted by aliens and is leaving on a planet called Z56, or something similar... I lost the will to live after 20 minutes and switched off. Apart from plodding around trying to take in a bit of culture, we didn't really get up to much Wellington... so we hoped onboard a ferry and headed south. We did catch the Maori game on the boat, but docked half way through, so had to get to the town center in Picton as soon as possible... now this place was just like Dover, just a hundred times smaller and with only the inbred people left -- it was an absolute pleasure to watch the lions lose there, whilst getting jeered by people donning cowboy hats and mullets...Anyway, after a brief visit to Nelson, we stopped at Kaikorau to do some whale huntin-- I mean whale watching! Although, the trip WAS quite expensive, so I was a little surprised when we arrived that we weren't handed harpoons and a bloody great net! It was a pretty cool experience. The whales didn't actually do much though. They were only up for a few minutes catching their breath, before diving down to pick up another huge black brick off the sea bed (or whatever they do down there?) for another 45 minutes or so. However, we did learn quite a lot about these giant trout; here are some facts to AMAZE you (again, because it was awhile ago, I've forgotten quite a bit, and therefore not all these facts are 100% reliable...):
* Sperm whales dive for an average of 45 minutes and only surface 5 minutes or so before going under again
* The blue whale's tongue alone weighs the same as an African elephant
* The furthest a sperm whale ever dived was 3000ft, holding it's breath for 3 hours (go on, try it -- we did!)
* They survive on a diet of sugar cane and potato skins
* The hippopotamus is the most evolved species of whale, and can survive both in the water and on land
* The heart of the blue whale is the same size as a Volkswagon Beetle and you could easily crawl through their arteries (nice thought)
* Guns don't kill people, rappers do!
It was a bit sad to find out that so many had been killed through whaling, and that the Japs want to start up the whaling program again ('for scientific reasons' of course!), which will no doubt make the blue whale extinct.
1. WHAT YOU LOOKING AT?
Anyway, that's enough of me wailing on! Me and Giggsy signed a petition with 10 other people so I'm sure the Japanese government will take our thoughts onboard... After spotting the whales we went looking for some dolphins -- and the fun really began! These crazy little flippers really knew how to put on a show!! They were BRILLIANT! As soon as our boat got close about 100 or so came legging it (well, swimming really quickly) towards us shouting "Whee-heey, look at us! Check us out! Whaaa-hooo! Whales are rubbish -- watch this back flip! Yeee-haaaaa!". Or, if anyone has see The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy, they may have been warning us of an impending alien invasion. I probably could have watched them all day, but unfortunately they got bored of us and suddenly left -- apart from a few die hard attention seekers... THEN, after that, we saw some seals, but they're moody little bastards so don't deserve a mention...Been staying in Christchurch for a few days now, which is a pretty cool place. Saw the Lions game against Wellington last night and got pretty drunk. To save on money we've started to drink a cheap bottle of wine each before we go out -- it's the kind of wine that makes you hiss like a cat after every swig. Also, I ended up buying ANOTHER ticket for the second test off some guys who had just flown in, because they sold it to me for $250! Bargin! I've just got to sell the other one now and I'll be quids in...
Okay I'm bored of writing now, so am off to Dunedin to get ready for the next Lions game (we have tickets!)...
