Watching those Whales

There are now large quantities of new photos in the Picasa album.  I actually went back through and deleted some of the ones I spent long hours waiting to upload because it was just too much of basically the same thing.

I went whale watching today, which explains the bajillion photos of the ocean and small bit of whale at the end of the album.  It really was quite a bit of fun, and we saw a bunch of sea birds, 3 sperm whales, and some Hector's dolphins.  It was funny because I had just seen a documentary about Kaikoura whale watch last week, and this was totally different.  I mean, the video was made in 1992, so one would expect things to have changed a bit, especially the hairstyles.  They were pretty rocking in 1992, and when I say rocking I mean high, hairsprayed, and scrunchied.  The boats they use now are high speed, partially enclosed, and equipped with GPS, flat screen, and two decks.  Much different from the inflatable zodiacs I saw in the video.  I certainly wasn't expecting it to be the same, but it was still just a funny juxtaposition.  It was started as a local Māori community venture, giving jobs out to members of the local iwi (from what I understand from the video).  Now it's much more commercial, and I ran across no one of Māori heritage in my entire desk to sea venture.  I plan on going back there tomorrow to talk about how the company got started.  

There was some lip service paid at the beginning of the voyage to Māori culture with a greeting that I could have recited, and the woman reciting it had to look down to remember it.  Kia ora.  There was also a brief mention of Paikea and whale riders.  Nothing horribly exciting, or new really.  I don't think too many people were listening anyways.  

I've lost a bit of my posting steam, and so I think I shall go make some dinner.  Moby Dick is staring at me, vastly unread.  I thought I might read some of it while on the ferry and bus yesterday, but that literally went out the window as I spent most of the time staring out the window taking pictures and reveling in freakish natural beauty.  

A thought to leave you with - one never knows how cold one's feet are until they are met with hot water.  Then it becomes abundantly clear how cold one's feet were.