Back to Kaikoura, Patricia Grace and Marae

Kia Ora!
My photo's were available for pick up today, really cool! Now I finally know how my camera is doing and if I captured "The Tail of the Whale" on film...and I did! The photo is not completely in focus, since te boat was moving like crazy but it still is a really really cool photo!

And this reminded me of the story of the Whalewatch we did in kaikoura...I only gave you a very very brief description...
So here it goes:

The day we were supposed to go whalewatching started with rain...and with rain the whalewatch could be cancelled. But we made our way to Kaikoura (eastcoast)to take our chances. And luckily the boat was still setting out to the sea. However, there was a warning posted: Seasickness highly probable...hmmm, sounds good...
So when it was time to get on the boat (after I went to the gasstation to get myself a plastic bag -size of big rubbish bin-to use as raincoat) one of the 'guides' asked the group who was afraid to get seasick. And honest as we were, Ulli and me put up our hands.-surprisingly we turned out to be the only ones who did- And we could go sit in the back, presumably you get less sick in the back (?). Silviu was pretending to be this though guy saying: Oh don't worry you're gonna be fine (german accent ;)..uhu..

And so we set out to sea...it was awesome! Because it was a high speed boat it sort of acted as a plane: lift off from the rising wave and then falling a few feet down soooo cool! Just like being in a rollercoaster!
But then came our first stop...I suddenly noticed that the majority of the people were looking pretty green...
And so was our Sukkel Silviu, hihi. When he was leaving the cabin, the hand over his mouth and expression on his face told me enough...
It turned out that of the fifty people on board, 40 were very seasick, throwing up every few minutes, not quite enjoying watching the whales..I couldn't help smiling at the irony of it all, whereas Ulli and me were feeling fine....
Somehow Sylviu didn't really like our little expedition.

So that was Kaikoura revisited...

For my NZ lit course I've been reading a novel by Patricia Grace, and I really enjoyed reading it. I can recommend her books to everyone. This evening, she was speaking at the National Library. And thus, I went to attend her speech. She was really nice, a little nervous and didn't look like I expected her to (when does someone?). She has signed my copy of the book, how cool is that? (okay, I think pretty cool)

Tomorrow I'm having a compulsory sleep-over at the Marae (say: marai=meetinghouse), we will be sleeping at the Wharenui(say: farenoe-ie =literally translated: the big house, the heart of the Marae) with all the people enrolled in my Maori course. Hopefully we do not have to speak only maori because then I have to be silent all day and night. I know how to say, I'm thirsty (hiainu), I'm hungry (hiakai) but I don't know how to ask for sth politely...hmmmm.
We are singing a song (waiata)...yep micky singing...introducing ourselves to the Maori community (mihimihi)...and saying a blessing (karakia)..hmm well it's gonna be heaps of fun!

Well, I'll leave it at that for now...everyone who hasn't seen the photo's of te Waipounamu (South Island) yet, they're still available in the photoalbum.

Cheers!