THAR SHE BLOWS!!

This morning we were up at 6am for the morning journey out to view whales off the coast of Kaikoura. Read that again folks. 6 A M.

The only times I've ever been up at that time have been as follows:

• Catching a plane
• Helping a school friend out on his milk round on the assurance "It'll be fun". Duration 20 minutes (I cut my hand open falling over onto a milk bottle). Still half asleep
• Doing a paper round that I tolerated for exactly three days until Sunday when the supplements were so heavy I couldn't even ride my bike
• Working a 6-2 shift when I was 19 in a poor effort to gain a bit more cash due to a 'shift allowance'. This lasted as long as my first pay packet. The early mornings driving to work half asleep in an unreliable car resulted in me sometimes forgetting that I'd driven to work. I'd catch the bus home and then think my car had been stolen. Once I actually reported it to the Police
• I fouled myself in my sleep

In a nutshell, I'm no early bird. But this morning was a bit of an exception. The thought of catching a glimpse of these magnificent creatures was enough to get me up without too much complaining.

Thinking that getting up early was going to be the most harrowing part of the day, we made our way down to 'The Whaleway Station' (no really, it was ACTUALLY called that).
At this point we were warned that the sea was very choppy and they issued a 'sea sickness alert'. Lou and I had anticipated this and had stocked up on Ginger Nuts and Ginger Beer.

The phrase Yin and Yang has never been more apt when describing the awesome sight of Sperm Whales breaching while trying to resist reaching... for the sick bag.

The day is still young so we have been mooching and checking some shops out and stocking up before we head off again. Where? Who knows, but we may be checking out some more Seal colonies that we checked out on the drive in.

Darren