January 5, 2011 was totally packed for me. While Hyomin and Joseph preferred to stay back on this rainy day, I booked a tour to go to Akaroa, a harbor about 75 km away from Christchurch. On my way there, I saw some of the most beautiful, scenic landscapes and loads of sheep.
On my way, I met an enthusiastic German couple. They had been backpacking around the South Island of New Zealand for a week and were looking forward to the highlight of their trip: Swimming with Dolphins. So, as I learnt that, they provide you with a comfortable wet suit etc., I decided to change my Harbor Wildlife Cruise to a Swim with Dolphins experience. In the end, I think the money was worth it. We got to swim with the world's smallest, rarest and friendliest dolphins: Hector dolphins. You are supposed to entertain them, and not touch them or challenge them in their territories. So, while we were swimming in the cold water, we were supposed to make some nice sounds with our snorkeling mask, hands etc. They were swift and shy with us. In our half an hour in water, we had about 5-6 dolphins swimming about 8-10 ft away from us.. But, I heard some nice stories from the German couple. The lady was on the boat and was trying to sing to the dolphins. They did listen to her songs and came close to those swimmers once or twice.
This was a brilliant day, but extremely tiring.. On our way back I bought some cherries. These were the best, sweetest cherries I had so far.. I got together with Hyomin and Joseph for dinner. We had the best kiwi fruits (of course!) Joseph bought us.
The next day early morning, we were at the airport to catch our flight to Auckland and then from there to US. The flights till US were uneventful, except I could not sleep much in the long flight. I did not have a chance to look at the night sky while I was in southern hemisphere. In Antarctica it was 24 hour sunlight. So I could only see the sun and sometimes the moon. In Christchurch, we just had one clear night and that was the night we arrived when I was extremely tired because of the travel and had to sleep early.. :( So, my only chance was on this flight from Auckland to LA. As I didn't have a window seat, I tried to gaze through the 20 sq cm window of the emergency doors. I saw Pegasus, Scorpio, the Southern cross and loads of stars which I could not identify..
On January 6 morning, braving the immigration line, customs and the full body scan-security, I reached the gate and waited there for my flight only to know that my flight was cancelled because of some mechanical problems. Joseph had an earlier flight to Atlanta and it was full. So, here I was stuck at LA airport, desperately wanting to get back to Blacksburg. Mandar finally decided that I needed some rest before I break down of the travel stress and a red eye flight with 10 hours halt was definitely not what I want. January 6 was probably the longest day of my life.. (46 hours as I crossed the date line too.. :o ) So, he negotiated a stay in LA and a next day early morning flight for me. After this eventful journey, I finally reached home on January 7, 2011 just to see a gloomy night with a white blanket all over! In any case, I was glad to be back.. Back home. :)
2 comments:
"Entertaining the dolphins" part is funny.. I am surprised that are not shy or scared of humans so close to them. I agree that it was worth spending your day with them..
They are the world's friendliest dolphins in the wild. Unlike the trained ones in the seaworlds, these dolphins come to play with humans if they find them interesting and harmless.. They are just a meter or so long.. Thus, no point in getting scared of them either.. There were 3 small kids with us too.. :)
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