Friday evening saw me on the coach to Wellington and then the flight to Christchurch. Internal flights in NZ are really easy and the airline staff made it as easy as possible for me, with a stewardess producing a pillow for me to rest my arm on within seconds of me taking my seat. I arrived in Christchurch to be met by Claire at 9pm. Where I live in a serviced apartment (cross between hotel and flat, a furnished flat. Very nice but cleaning etc are down to her. Fortunately she has a second bedroom so she was able to accommodate me - albeit sleeping on the sofa cushions on the floor. Unfortunately I did not sleep well - I think flying had upset my arm a bit so I was in pain again.
Saturday we set off with Sarah, who lives in an adjacent flat, to meet Amy off the plane at 9am. The weather was a bit grim but still dry when we set off for Kaikoura for the whale watching. A little over 2 1/2 later we arrived in time for the start of the rain. We went into the whale watch office to find that weather at sea was deteriorating and that there was some doubt that trips would run - and they were all carrying sea sickness warnings! We were offered an earlier trip than the one we had booked - which we accepted as the earlier ones stood better chance of funning. Anyway, we departed at 12:45 without Sarah as she had decided that the seasick potential was too great for her - they give full refund. The trip out to the whale watch area was choppy but no problem. When we arrived in the general area the earlier trip was watching a whale on the surface, however, we arrived just in time to see it dive. They make everyone sit in the cabin until the boat has a whale in sight and then it is a mad dash to get outside where they can be seen. It was very windy and raining so not that pleasant to be on deck anyway but it meant that actually seeing the whale was much harder. During our time at sea we had the same whale on the surface 3 times and each time for only about 5 minutes max each time - not long when you have to get from airline type seats (about 80 people) to a position on deck where you can see. This meant that I didn't get much chance to take photos although I did video a couple of times - very wobbly though as I was doing it left handed in choppy seas! We did betterethan the last trip of the day though as they got an 80% refund because they didn't spot a whale at all! By the time we got back though it was pouring with rain so we had a warming drink and set off back to Christchurch. After a meal and a few drinks it was back to Claire's for my second night on the floor.
Bettter night's sleep though and we went for breakfast at the Arts Centre and a bit of a look at Christchurch before back to the airport to fly homeat midday. All in all a lot of travelling - I didn't actually get home until 6pm, for what turned out to be a disappointing whale watch trip but overall a good weekend. It was nice to be with others this weekend - and I even managed to do my own bra up for the first time in 2 weeks! Sorry, only picture I took was the trams in the city centre this morning.
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