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Where Have All The Whales Gone? And Where's My Money?
Kaikoura -> Wellington, 11th December 2001.
I woke up early and as quietly as possible today because I was about
to go Whale Watching. I needed to check in at 6:15am, but I didn't
want to disturb the others who were still in a peaceful slumber.
There were loads of other people up an about at this early hour who
were also going Whale Watching or swimming with dolphins.
After throwing my bag on the Kiwi Experience bus (we're travelling
out to Picton at about 9:30am) which would pick me up after the
whale watching. I then headed down to the Whale Watch HQ. It was a
beautiful clear morning. For the first time I could see the
mountains clearly. The pale, red sky made the snow-topped mountains
look spectacular.
 I arrived a few minutes early at the Whale Watch building. After a
few minutes the lady behind the desk put a sign saying 'Marginal'
next to the check-in. This meant that the waters were calm for the
time-being, but they might get rough very quickly meaning we'd have
to come back early. If this happened, we would get some of our money
refunded. We all checked in and when the lady realised I was
travelling with the Kiwi Experience, she decided to get us all out
earlier so we'd definitely be back on time. After watching the
safety video, we all boarded a bus and headed round to the boat.
The boat was very modern, clean & impressive looking. We all boarded
and took our seats. The chairs were big & comfortable and because
not many people were on the sailing, there were lots of empty seats.
A guy sitting in a chair in the middle facing us introduced himself
& the crew. Our captain was a stout, young, blonde lady called Lisa.
Our 'whale spotter' was a tall, well-built, Maori guy with a missing
front tooth. We were told to sit at the back if we get sea-sick. As
I've never been travel sick, I sat at the front, a bad choice I was
to soon discover.
As the boat got going, we picked up real speed. We started bouncing
over the waves. The ride got really bumpy. BANG...WHOOSH...BANG. We
flew into the air and slammed, hard, back onto the water a number of
times. At first this was good fun. My stomach was being thrown all
over the place just like being on a fairground ride.
We made our first stop. The captain went outside and put what looked
like a modified metal-detector into the water to check for whales.
Unfortunately, we didn't find any, so we moved onto another spot. At
each of the stops we were allowed outside onto the deck to have a
breather & a look around.
We made quite a few stops, but unfortunately we didn't have any
luck. Not that I was concerned about whales by then. After our
second stop, I felt a twinge and began to feel a bit queasy & needed
to grab a sick bag. After the third stop, I moved to a back seat. As
we continued to bump through the waves & my stomach continued to be
thrown around, I began to feel worse & worse. BANG
BANG....WHOOSH.....BANG....WHOOSH. I tried everything, focusing on
the horizon, pinching my earlobe, eating a mint. None worked, and I
just got worse. I was grateful for each stop as it gave me a chance
to recover slightly.
When we were heading back on our final leg, I looked around and
noticed that just about everyone was armed with a white paper bag.
Everyone, except a young boy and a calm looking old couple, was
being sick. A member of crew with plastic gloves was rushing all
over the place collecting full bags & handing out tissues. Even the
quiet, calm guy next to me broke. Luckily, I made it back to shore
without throwing up. But if the journey was 2 metres further, I
think I would have gone.
Feeling shaky & weak-legged, I crawled onto shore & we headed back
to the Whale Watch HQ for our refunds as we didn't see any whales.
However, when we reached the short, I could see Nat, Em & Stinge,
but noticed there was no big green Kiwi bus. I queued up for my
refund, then Nat came running up to me. She had some bad news. The
Kiwi Experience bus had had to leave without us. Great.
Apparently, Kiwi Experience & Whale Watch have an agreement where
the Whale Watch gets us back at a reasonable time and the Kiwi Exp
bus will wait for us. Not this time. The boat had got back too late
because of rough water and so the driver couldn't hang around that
long.
The driver had already had a go at the Whale Watch staff, but now it
was my turn. Whale Watch told us the details and said we needed to
get, at our own expense, a taxi/shuttle to Picton. I made it clear
that we had spent $500 on bus passes and we didn't want to shell out
more money on a trip that was included in our pass.
After making our point loudly, I was taken to one side by the lady
because by this time, everyone in the queue was looking intently.
When I asked for the phone number for the Whale Watch Head Office,
she gave me the phone number for the Kiwi Experience Head Office.
She insisted that the Kiwi Experience office was at fault and they
were sorting our re-imbursing our cost for the shuttles to Picton.
Hmmm, sounds like I could get stuck between 2 companies passing the
buck.
However, because time was running out, we agreed to pay for the
shuttle now, as long as we got our money back later. The lady then
told us the shuttle we needed was leaving from the Tourist
Information centre in 10 minutes. The Tourist Info Centre is a 15
minute walk away & we had our big rucksacks. Great.
Luckily, as we were about to run for our lives, Kat, the manager of
the Topspot hostel turned up in her little mini-van. After filling
her in with the details, she gave us a lift to the Tourist Info
centre. Phew, thanks Kat! We owe you one!
We managed to get onto the shuttle on time. I handed the driver the
$60 for the 4 of us, which I will make sure we get back later, then
off we went.
The journey was quite quick & uneventful. The only exciting thing
was when we were about half way to Picton. As we were driving down
the road, I noticed that various cars were flashing their headlights
at us. About 10 minutes later, we saw why. As we drove round the
corner, the road ahead was blocked. Lying on it's side, across both
lanes was a huge, two-trailer lorry. The rear trailer was upside
down off the side of the road. The front trailer was smashed & the
goods inside lay scattered on the road. Fortunately, the driver
seemed to have got out safely.
Luckily, a group of people had taken the initiative and had kept the
traffic flowing. A track had been made, running around the
jack-knifed truck, into the grass verge running alongside the road.
These people were guiding the trucks & cars around the obstacle
slowly, one at a time. What was quite strange was that all of these
people were senior citizens, 65 and older! Even the single fireman
looked like a pensioner who had thrown on a fireman's costume for a
joke. But, however old they were, they were doing a great job
keeping the traffic flowing. Note, in New Zealand there tends to be
only ONE road between cities. This was probably the only road
between Picton & Kaikoura. Thanks guys!
The rest of the journey was over pretty quickly. We managed to get
to Picton before the Kiwi Exp bus, probably because Kiwi Exp buses
take hour long stops on the way. We got in quickly & checked in our
bags. Just as we headed up for a bite to eat, the Kiwi Experience
bus pulled up and the passengers start to unload noisily.
The ferry crossing was a pretty straight-forward affair. We decided
to sit in the lounge for the journey. The ferry was quite small,
when we decided to have a quick look around, it was VERY quick.
I spent most of the time on the ferry on the phone to Kiwi
Experience trying to sort out our re-imbursement for the shuttle.
The lady on the phone said they weren't aware of the situation
(hmmm, Whale Watch said Kiwi Exp were dealing with it. Looks like
the passing of the buck had begun). She said that I needed to write
up a short report and send it, along with the taxi receipt, to the
Kiwi Exp head office. Ok. I hung up. Receipt? Damn. I knew I forgot
something. I know it's a stupid thing to do, but in the rush earlier
I had forgotten to get a receipt. Using my initiative, I phoned
Whale Watch who gave me the phone number for the shuttle service. I
then phoned the shuttle service and, luckily, they agreed to post a
receipt to our hostel in Wellington. Phew!
With that excitement over, the rest of the ferry crossing went
quickly and we were soon back on a Kiwi Exp bus heading to our
hostel. Our hostel was the Downtown backpackers, a massive hostel &
former hotel. It was really impressive with spacious, comfortable,
en-suite rooms. The kitchen was absolutely massive with huge
singe-your-eyebrow style gas rings and a massive walk-in fridge.
 After finding our way out of the hostel we had a walk around
Wellington city. It was very clear why this place is called the
Windy city (along with about 50 other cities in the world!). Trying
to walk down the street required enormous effort. I lost count of
the number of times we were almost blown into the road! It was also
quite funny watching commuters struggling through the gales! Some
old guy was attacked by a violently blowing plastic bag!
The supermarket was fantastic because there were LOADS of free
samples. At first it was just broccoli & mango, then we found
chocolates, pesto, ham, pavlova, Fererro Rocher, Cadbury's Roses
chocolates, Christmas cake and more! By the time we left we were
well & truly stuffed! Free samples are the way forward for budget
travellers!
The city was very quiet as the shops were closed, so we had a good
look around. For a capital city, it's actually very small & quiet.
Sums up New Zealand really! The hustle & bustle of London or Paris
is quite a different feeling! When it started to get dark, we
decided to call it a night and headed back to the hostel for the
night
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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