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| From New Zealand |
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| From New Zealand |
Done! and Done!
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| From New Zealand |
The seal swim was much the same operation as the dolphin swim but with a couple of important exceptions:
#1 - We got flippers, hoods (important for keeping warmer!), and masks (with corrective lenses!! yay! yay! yay!)- so we could move, stay in the water longer and SEE.
#2 - Much less fancy boat - just a motor boat - and NO HOT CHOCOLATE. The downsize in boat meant there was no place to keep a camera dry. And, foolish, foolish, foolish me, I did not buy an underwater camera (disposable) from the seal swim stand.
#3 - There are a whole bunch MORE seals, they are MUCH MORE interested in people, and it is MUCH MORE fun.
The seal swim begins with a van ride out of town followed by a painful creep barefoot across sharp rocks to the shore. Then, a short buzz through very choppy water (this may vary) to a local "haul out" - an area where seals tired from the nights hunting haul themselves out of the water to rest. When they get bored or hot they jump back into the water and hang or explore or play. They're smart and curious and have very weird eyes - at least when viewed from underwater. The globes bulge out like little round goldfish bowls on their faces.
We'd swim out to where the seals were. Often they'd be resting by hanging upside down in the water with their back feet sticking out of the water. (That's how we'd find them.) Once we got close they'd sometimes swim over, peer into our masks, then in a flash of bubbles, twist, spin, and dive away. I think I may have mentioned this - it was great fun!
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| From New Zealand |
We spent the entire day in Kaikoura- walking through town, driving up to the lookout to view the peninsula, going out to where another seal colony rested nearer to town, missing the opportunity to eat inexpensive seafood at a roadside stand, then watching two more episodes of "Criminal Minds". (I'm not sure why the only two nights we stayed in rooms with TVs it was "Criminal Mind" marathon night. Does this say something about us? or about NZ?)
*They were excellent bagels. If NZ can have "real" bagels, why not Australia???
5 comments:
We get bagels from a coffee shop at Nundah Village (on the old part of Sandgate Rd) called "The C Word".
http://www.cword.com.au/
Maybe tomorrow. The quest is ON!
They open about 8am. I was there at 7:30 once and had to wait while the bleary-eyed girl cooked the bagels. You can get nude bagels or bagels with a variety of things on them (but not cream cheese), or you can get them to takeaway. We get a bag of 6 nude ones to takeaway.
"but not cream cheese"?????
prices are a bit steep - I think I'm still living in 1981.
1981 = bagel = $.60
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