Porpoise bay

I had promised Celia that we would go down to Porpoise bay to go and swim with the dolphins, so we decided to take Angela with us as she was not working, something to do with dodgy South African teaching qualifications not recognised in NZ. We totally underestimated this trip for two reasons

1. How bloody far porpoise bay is from Alexandra
2. How absolutely freezing the water is that far down south

It turned out that the trip down took us just over 3hours and some 260km but it was definitely worth it. Porpoise Bay was really beautiful and once we had spotted the Hectors dolphins, it was all worth it. When we saw they were swimming towards the shore, I got brave and decided to go and swim with them. Let me first give you a bit of history of the dolphins here. Hectors dolphins are the smallest breed of dolphins in the world, very curious, but also very shy. So if you lie still enough in the water, they often come up to you and have a little sniff and see what all the fuss is about.

I swam pretty far out towards them but eventually they swam towards me, a small pod of about 10 dolphins. Once they got about 20m away they had satisfied their curiosity though and swam away. Angela and I went back in, and me a third time, but they never came closer than that. The woman at the Park office said they seemed to be feeding today and were not in a particularly playful mood. What happened when we left was the icing on the cake though, the dolphins as if to say goodbye and thank you for all your hard effort in saying hello swam right up to the beach in the surf and jumped around in the waves. What an amazing experience that the three of us will never forget!!

The trip home was a little hair raising and the Corolla went around those bends at speeds never been seen on the South Island but the girls kept quiet as they knew we would be late for dinner otherwise.

Dinner on the other hand was an entirely different affair. Ang & John have become quite friendly with the chef at the restaurant on the Shaky Bridge wine estate so we were treated like special guests. The food was delicious and that lamb rump was the most tender I have ever eaten. We tried may bottles of Pinot Noir that night as the region is famous for that grape, but the best according to my palette would have to be the only one I cannot remember the name of... devils back or dragons back, something to that effect. What is more amazing is that the restaurant never charged us for one bottle. It pays to have friends who run restaurants. Which reminds me, the couple who run this place are originally from Dunedin, NZ and they have cooked for Prince Charles, and Charlie apparently asks for hard boiled eggs with every meal as well. They also cooked for Chris Martin & Gynneth Paltrow who they just call Gwn.. when you are that close you can just afford to shorten their names. Can't recall what they said about Gyn's special macrobiotic, or was it microbiotic diet. Whatever it was, it's just silly. My new diet is called 'macrobeerotic' and it involves having more than one beer a day or you may risk losing weight.

Saying goodbye to John and Ang was pretty tough as Ang n' Cath are like extended family. When you haven't seen your close friends in a while like Catherine, I started seeing loads of qualities in Ang that are the same as her sisters, like her humour and laugh which was just as infectious as Cath's always is.