They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning...

Sunday, October 12
Queen Charlotte Sounds

I woke up Sunday with a sore neck, but feeling well-rested. Since I’d come in so late, Jamie and Katie were already asleep, and had claimed the bottom bunks. Meaning it would have been impossible for me to climb into a make up one of the top bunks without making a racket. So I just slept on the couch. It happens.

We were all up and ready to leave by 9, when we were picked up by Dolphin Watch Ecotours. We piled into the dolphin-watching boat, and headed back out into the Sounds. It was another chilly, but sunny morning, and the water was calm. I don’t think we could have had more perfect weather for this trip.

On our way out to Ship Cove, we encountered our first pod of dolphins. They were Dusky Dolphins, the most common breed in NZ waters. They were an active bunch, and hung around with our boat for some time, darting here and there while we all snapped hundreds of photos. Even a lone fur seal joined in the fray at one point. One of our guides said it’s not uncommon for a seal to hang out with the dolphins – it’s easier to get food that way, apparently.

We idled for about 20 minutes, watching the dolphins. It really was amazing to see how gracefully they move through the water – they make it look so effortless! But eventually we had to move on.

Along the way to Ship Cove, our guides pointed out all the sea and bird life they could spot along the way. And, at the front of the boat, one of them was constantly on the lookout for more dolphins with a pair of binoculars. We saw a lot of birds on our trip. Mostly shearwaters, I think, but also a King Shag. Shags (we might know them better as cormorants) live all over, but the King Shag is very rare. So rare, in fact, that it’s only found in the Marlborough Sounds in NZ. Pretty cool!

We stopped at Ship Cove for about half an hour to stretch our legs and learn a little about the area. Captain Cook named it when he landed there in 1770, and visited the site five times throughout his life. There’s a big monument dedicated to him there. Also at Ship Cove I saw my first Weka! Wekas are another breed of native NZ bird. They are flightless, and resemble what I imagine would result if you crossed a kiwi with a chicken. They were apparently in the running with the kiwi as NZ’s national bird, though the kiwi eventually won. I’m not sure which I like better… the wekas are certainly more friendly!

Once we got back onto the boat, we headed back in the direction of Picton. Along the way, we ran into another pod of Dusky Dolphins. This one was a much smaller, relaxed pod, and they drifted lazily around the boat for a bit while we watched. Eventually they lost interest, however, and we had to set off again.

We floated around a salmon farm, complete with fat fur seals sunning themselves and hoping for an easy meal. And, just before we got back to Picton, we saw one more group of dolphins. There were only three in this group: one Dusky, and two Bottlenoses! The bottlenoses were a mother a son, and were so much bigger than the duskies! After seeing the small, sleek duskies all day, it was a bit of a shock when the mother bottlenose drifted out in front of our boat!

Eventually we made it back to Picton, where we immediately boarded the ferry bound for Wellington. I spent this ferry ride indoors, mostly just talking with Katie and Jamie over a late lunch. The ride back was fairly smooth, though the rocking of the large boat coupled with the Dramamine I had taken only served to make me very sleepy. But I’ll take it.

What time does Wee Willy Winkie run through the Sounds?

Saturday, October 11
Queen Charlotte Sounds

The next exciting thing to write about is a weekend outing Jayne planned for us international kids to the Queen Charlotte Sounds. We (about a dozen of us, including Katie who Jayne invited along with us) met up at Massey at 7:30 a.m., and loaded up the shuttles that would take us to the Interislander Ferry terminal down on the waterfront.

The morning was chilly with a rather biting wind, but the blue sky overhead kind of made up for it. We were aboard the largest ferry in the fleet, the Kaitaki, and the ride was relatively smooth despite the wind. Even though it was cold and windy, I spent most of the three-hour journey on the top deck, watching as we navigated the Cook Strait. Jen and I had a nice chat on deck about our time in New Zealand, and how weird it will be to head back home.

We arrived in Picton right on schedule, disembarked the ferry, and immediately clambered onto another, smaller, boat piloted by our hiking guides for the day, Joe and Steve. After handing around lunches, they took us to Mistletoe Bay so that we could briefly drop off our things and get into our hiking gear. Then it was back into the boat, destination Anakiwa, another bay nestled in the Marlborough Sounds.

It was from Anakiwa that we began our four-hour hike along the Queen Charlotte Track. We wove our way along an uneven trail, through native bush and moss-covered beech forest. Shafts of sunlight filtered down through the silver fern here and there as we made our way steadily uphill.

Halfway through the hike we reached a lookout. We were given a 20-minute break to rehydrate and take in the Sounds sprawling out below us. It was a pretty awesome sight on a day like that.

After that, it was more hiking. Far more hiking that I really cared to do, to be honest. It was fun for the first two hours. But after that, all I could think about was putting my feet up somewhere and getting out of my sweaty clothes.

We eventually made our way back to Mistletoe Bay, after a solid four and a half hours out in the native NZ bush. We all chose cabins, Jamie, Katie and I claiming the one that overlooked the bay. After discarding our shoes, the three of us made our way down to the boat dock to test out the water. Jamie and Katie were convinced they were going to go swimming – until they stuck their toes in the freezing cold water, that is.

Scratching the idea of a dip, we headed back to the cabins, hoping that dinner was not far behind. It turned out Ash (one of Massey’s tech gurus and an American expatriate) had finished dinner 20 minutes earlier but hadn’t bothered to tell anyone. Needless to say, after our long hike, word travelled quickly.

Tacos have never tasted so good in my entire life. I ate two, followed by chips, followed by pavlova. I’m sure that between all of us, we ate enough food to feed at least 50 people. Okay, perhaps that’s exaggerating a bit… but we did eat a lot.

After dinner, we discovered the board games. Jamie and Katie wandered off to have some roomie bonding time, while a group of us played Scrabble. Ash kind of kicked our asses, and then admitted that he’s no longer allowed to play with his friends because he always annihilates them. Jen and I came in second, though, so go us!

Following Scrabble, we broke out the Trivial Pursuit. The game began with me, Josh, Denise, Una and Melinda, but Una and Melinda soon tired of the game and wandered off. The remaining three of us proceeded to play the most epic game of Trivial Pursuit ever. And this wasn’t just any old game of Trivial Pursuit. No. This was a New Zealand-based Trivial Pursuit from the early ‘90s. It was beyond amazing.

None of us had even had any wine, but we were bringing each other to tears with laughter on a regular basis. Part of it was because we were doing so badly, part of it was because we were exhausted, and part of it was because we just wanted to have fun with it. Some things involved? Wee Willy Winky running through the town, Donald Duck, cygnets and syphilis (and Josh deciding his child was going to have both words in its name, along with Aloycius, and hopefully have a lisp), and watermelon seeds. And those were just the questions!

I don’t even remember who won. All I know was packing up, in tears and with my abs aching from all the laughing, around 11 p.m. Josh was tempted to steal the game because, as he said, “I think I love it,” and Denise and I stealing the cards with our favorite questions on them.

What a night.