After a surprising night sleep, we got up early to head to 'Whale watch', The weather had turned, it was early, windy and the sea was rough as the rain set in. As a precaution we all took some sea sickness tablets to help the 3 hr round trip.

When we arrived for our 7.45 tour we discovered that the previous tour had a group of 56 people cancel. Luckily they combinded both tours so we could continue with our trip.

After a quick intro and video about whales, we were loaded into a mini bus and transfered across the Kiakoura pennisula to the Southend harbour where we boarded our boat. luckily the rain stopped, but the sea was rough.

There was only about 9 of us on board, so we had plenty of space. We got introduced to all the crew before heading out.

Our guide told us about the type of whales we could see and why we see them here. It was very interesting learning about the continental shelf, whales migration, etc.

Kiakoura is only one of three places in the world where you only have to travel something small like 3 miles off the coast before you hit the continental shelf, The continential shelf is where the sea depth drops instantly like a cliff from 200-300m to 1000m making it a perfect for the whales.

Stevie and I didnt see any whales last time we came so we were a little apprehensive about seeing any this time. The sea sickness pills I had taken earlier were not helping with the rocking of the boat...

...It wasnt long before we had a glimpse of our first whale, instant excitement we all headed out to the deck, cameras ready. There it was, blowing water from its blow hole, the waves washing over it as the whale floated on the surface. After about 5 minutes the whale took a deep breath and dived, as the whale dived, it lifted up its tale, which was the photo opportunity, It was an amazing, majestic sight.

As soon as the whale dived, I could feel the sea sickness kicking in, I had to go back inside while the rest of the group took photos of a second whale that appeared. I tried so hard to keep my sick in, but it was too late. I was puking into a little white bag while everyone was outside having fun. After I was sick, i felt better and we saw a 3rd and 4th whale. This was better than we could ever have expected. There was more whales in the distance. Although I was excited, it couldn't stop the next spell of vomit coming but, again i was inside feeling like death as the next gag came, followed by another and another. The rest of the group was off filming the 5th whale while i was on the floor putting my whole body into every gag.

By the 3 round of sickness, we headed back to the harbour, Me returning as an albino man.

After the whale watch we headed down route 1 and pulled over along the coast to see more seals. We saw hundreds. It was a nice ending to a great week before we headed back to Christchurch......