Been a while…

It feels like forever since I last wrote. So much has been done and experienced. It has been an interesting combination of very busy and very quiet times. Today I experienced something I have been looking forward to for a very long time. Due to the lack of enthusiasm from the children, this morning I went out on a whale watching tour on my own. It was strange to be without them, but I had a truly amazing time watching these majestic humpback whales frolicking in the ocean. After a fairly brisk start we headed off out into the bay and it wasn’t long before we could see the now familiar spouts of water on the horizon and then the whales themselves launching into the air and pirouetting before crashing spectacularly down again with an almighty splash with that all too familiar breach. The boat I had chosen (The Quick Cat) seemed like a lucky choice as it was spacious and comfy, with lovely staff and as it’s name suggests, had enough grunt to get us to the whales in no time. In many ways it is nice to share such moments with other people, where we can all oooh and aaah in unison at the awesome sight taking place before our eyes. Although we have spotted humpback whales a few times up the coast and were lucky enough to see some when we went out sailing with Phil on the Gold Coast, what makes Hervey (pronounced HArvey for some reason) Bay the best place in the world along with Hawaii, is that they seem to take the time to have a little R&R and a play in this protected area. Watching them today rising to the surface and smacking their enormous pectoral fins into the water, each in turn, for about ten minutes really looked like a game they were playing. They are very inquisitive and come right over to the boat, a couple swam right underneath us and we all held our breaths as we absorbed the incredible grace and power of such an enormous creature as we moved over the top of her. I feel privileged to have seen these creatures in their natural state and shake my head in amazement that anyone would want to kill them. What an experience! I won’t forget today for a long time… …And neither will I forget yesterday. As much as today was uplifting, yesterday was about killing and destruction. As we were driving round Hervey Bay we spotted a building with a huge shark outside, advertising the world’s best shark show and a frozen Great White. Well, you can imagine Tal’s face lit up and we excitedly ventured inside to be met by this rather lovely Kiwi lady, but a rather dated looking place. Not to be put off we paid or entry and headed on in. The first port of call was that great white in a huge frozen display. This had the sound of being something great, but in reality he looked much as I feel some days – a little old and worn around the edges!! He really did look very ordinary and there was definitely a slightly fishy aroma pervading the dank, cold room he was in. We should have taken this as a sign of things to come, but we soldiered on and walked around to look at hundreds of media clippings, surfboards with bites out of them etc. all relating to shark attacks. There seemed to be a lot of information about this guy Vic Hislop, including letters sent to him from grateful people for whom he had saved the day by killing a shark or ten. The best was yet to come. “Shark Hunter 2” is billed as “…entertainment for the whole family.” It’s a movie that runs in a little theatre on a loop. Our kids weren’t very entertained, so much so that Tal got up and left, as did Rennie. In fact Tal got really upset and we had to leave shortly afterwards as he ended up in tears and was really quite distressed. The movie, and the whole expo for that matter, was all about killing sharks - how to do it, with lots of photos and footage. This was all too much for Tal the boy who loves sharks. He couldn’t understand how this guy could call himself a conservationist and go out there and kill all these sharks – I feel much the same myself. Hislop claims that due to heavy fishing we are taking the large sharks food source and this in turn leads them to attack baby whales, dolphins etc much more than mother nature intended. He may have a point, but I am not sure if culling sharks is the solution. Now that the great whites are protected I think he is a bit less active and he certainly isn’t too happy about the ruling. After the event we asked Tal why he hadn’t told us earlier about how all the images were upsetting him and he reminded us that we had said we would do this for him and he had been worried about the money we had spent on his behalf, so didn’t want to let us down. We both felt pretty ordinary after we heard this. How easy it is to try and make kids appreciate things by slipping in a comment reinforcing that we are doing it for them, instead of just giving with an open heart and letting things take their natural course. It is a tricky thing, but we are learning all the time. One would think this would have been enough killing for one day, but last night Andre decided to try out the new headphones and extension lead he got for the TV. This is to enable us to watch TV at night without Tal listening to every word being said – he had started to comment on the plot for The Bill a bit too often. Anyway we decided to watch a DVD and we chose Munich from the selection our friends Zo and Ant made for our trip. Undoubtedly it is brilliantly acted by Eric Bana, but as some of you may know it is all about the hostage taking and shooting of the Israeli athletes at the Olympic games, and the reprisals to the Black September organizations. All just a bit too much for me and I slept an uneasy, dream filled sleep where I ran around desperately looking for people to kill and not being able to find any of them! I hope I sleep better tonight. H