On Holiday – Yay! – Part II – Whales in the Ocean & Seals on the Side of the Road

After a nice night’s of sleep, we started off southward. Our plan was to drive helter skelter to Dunedin, which is far down the southern island and spend a few days there to see how much we like it (it’s my #1 choice of where to live in NZ), and then drive to the southern tip, Invercargill, and then slowly make our way up, stopping for a couple days in Christchurch, another "big" city which has the potential as a place to settle. We had been told by the locals here that there was "a great place about 45 minutes from Picton" to watch whales. Heheh, it’s typical for people to tell you about a "great place" but never know its name or quite how to get there. Just today, when I was asking a woman at the local pit stop where a good place to fish was, her face screwed up, she said something like, "Umm, yeah, well, I’m not sure how to get there. Do you know where the dump is? There’s like a driveway there…"

Back to the whales. I was pretty excited about this, and as we made a stop in Kaikoura, it was pretty clear from the garden of giant signs around that THIS was the place. We followed one particular series of signs to the ocean where a giant building was set up just for whale watching. I went in and inquired at the desk. For $125, they take you out on a boat for a few hours and guarantee you at least somewhat of a whale sighting, since they use particular equipment that hears the whales underwater, positions the boat just above them, and then patiently waits for the whales to come up for air. A little costly, but to me this is one of those once in a lifetime things that you just never forget. But, this pricey pitstop was not on our list, and I knew I had to compromise…for now. I’ve never been great with money, and get even worse during a vacation. It’s basically because I believe that you should go all-out (*cough* within reason), since vacations are really what form some of your best, most exciting memories.

After emerging from the glossy whale center, I found Beau down by the shore, gazing out to sea with several others. "Look out there," he said, pointing way out into the distance. There, I could just make out some black forms rolling around on the horizon. It wasn’t exactly a part of our travel plans though, and quite expensive, so I told myself that I would quietly wait until our return drive and see how our money situation is, and if I could somehow convince Beau that this is something we must do.

We got back in the car and continued to drive along the coast, which is always beautiful, and always very subtly changing. At one point, with a mountain to our right and the coast to our left, I saw the sign you see in the photo to the right.

"OH MY GOD! There are seals? There are SEALS! Oh my GOD!"

I frantically pressed my nose to the glass to try to spot the dark shapes of the seals. All I saw, on and on and on, were brown rocks.

Wait a minute.

What if the seals weren't black like you see in Sea World, what if they were more brown? The second my brain considered that was the second I spotted one, and I began screaming, "PULL OVER PULL OVER NOW!" A startled Beau pulled over in a spot on the side where a couple of other cars had the same idea. I almost leapt out of the car, camera in hand, in a complete frenzy of excitement. I stood at the edge, and looked down at the rocks and sea below.

At first you see nothing but rocks in various hues of brown. And then, like in one of those stupid optical illusion paintings, your eyes just SEE them. They were there, perhaps HUNDREDS of them, just all basking on the rocks. These fur seals almost perfectly matched the rocks, so Beau and I kept continuously exclaiming, "Look, there's another one!" as they materialized before our increasingly-trained eyes. I began to cautiously pick my way down the rocks to get closer. My digital camera is great, but its zoom sucks, so I wanted to get close. I didn't need to ignore Beau's warnings, for I was scared enough not to get too close. There were a couple bulls around and they looked pretty scary.

So I commenced to take like 100 photos of the fur seals, and we each posed precariously on rocks as close as we dared get to get shots of ourselves with the seals in the background. As I had climbed down a bit for my own shot, I heard what sounded like a senior citizen's cough. I looked around and just saw some female seals motionless on the rocks, except for the occasional cracked eye which would peer at me for a moment and then clamp back shut again.

*cough cough*

Hoarse and strong, I knew it was some sort of warning, but it seemed too comical. Then I spotted it.

It was a little baby seal, the first real small one we'd seen, tucked underneath in a mini-cave-like hole under a rock close by. It obviously saw me as some sort of threat.

"Ohhhhhh how cuuuuuuute!" I was pretty much overcome with cuteness at that moment. I might have actually melted a little bit.

*cough cough* (a bit louder this time)

I didn't get any closer, but knew I needed a photo of it. The little tyke began to bump and lurch his way up and out of the rock space, coughing away, until he got to the top of the rock next to a female whom I assumed was its mother. She cracked an eye again, but seemed bored by the both of us, so continued on with her nap. The tyke continued to make huffing and puffing noises, and I continued to snap away. Here you can see what I believe to be one of the cutest photos of all time.

Finally, Beau dragged me back to the car and we continued on our trip, me babbling away excitedly while reviewing the shots on my camera. It was totally unexpected, and yet it would end up being one of the most special moments on the trip for me.