Today I am very angry. I woke up at 8 and there was no Steve telling us the swimming was on, so I went back to sleep assuming it was off because the weather was so crappy. I woke up again at 8:30 and bumped in Susan in the bathroom and asked her if she had heard anything. She said no, and I crawled back into bed. I was woken up by Susan about 15 minutes later saying that the swimming was on and that we were supposed to have been at the Centre 20 minutes ago. Turns out the Steve had left his phone in one of the bedrooms and proceeded to go out and get stinking drunk the previous evening, coming home at about 6:30 still drunk, and according to someone on the tour, still drinking. His phone had been ringing all morning but since he didn't have it he didn't answer it. And he was too drunk to wake up and check with the Dolphin people. Susan found him fast asleep at 8:40 and he said he lost his phone and made her phone the Dolphin Encounters people, who were very nice. They gave us 10 minutes to get down there - they had been trying to get a hold of Steve since 8:00. She went around and woke us all up and we all scrambled to get ready and packed (as the van was going to have to be loaded up while we were gone). Steve basically told Susan that we'd better get ourselves down there - he had no intention of driving us even though we had no idea where it was. He finally got into the van but was way to drunk to drive so Baby Whale had to drive with Steve calling out half asleep and totally pissed directions from the back seat.
We made it to the Centre with just enough time to get into our wetsuits and snorkels and onto the buses, missing the training and safety video (Steve's only response to that when told later was "good thing you didn't have to watch the boring film"). When the buses pulled out to go to the wharf Susan noticed that the van was gone, so Steve must have driven it back to the hostel - good thing no-one else was in there with him. I tried to get over being angry because I wanted to enjoy the trip. We were split up into three boats with 13 swimmers on each, plus spectators. Then we cruised around for about 1/2 hour looking for dolphins. The ride was a blast - the water was really choppy, so the boat was bouncing all over the place, like an amusement park ride. We found a pod and jumped into the water.
It was rainy and cool, but the water was surprisingly warm - about 17-18 degrees (Celsius). I found myself panicking a bit with breathing through the the snorkel, so that round was was more about me getting used to breathing and the mask than the dolphins. We got back on the boat and circled around to the front of the pod again and went back into the water. This time I really enjoyed seeing all the dolphins around me - we were supposed to hum or sing and entertain the dolphins so they would hang come to see us. After some random noisemaking I settled on "Mairzy Doats" for some reason and sung my little heart out. We went into the water four times and each time the dolphins came closer. At one point I turned around and there was a dolphin eye about one foot from my face. They move so fast in the water - they were gliding all around us. I wanted to touch them, but wasn't sure if it was allowed (see - watching the film would have been useful!). Norrie said later that he actually held on to a dorsal fin for a second.
It was so cool being so close to dolphins (and snorkling was fun too). After our last swim we came back on board and stripped off our wetsuits and wrapped ourselves in warm blankets and had hot chocolate and gingernut cookies while taking pictures of the dolphins through the rain. They were leaping all over the place.
We got back to the hostel (a fairly long walk in the rain as Steve was certainly not there to collect us)to find that the others on the tour had packed up the stuff people didn't have time to pack in the frantic rush of the morning and gotten everything loaded onto the trailer. Everyone was upstairs in the TV room watching "Coronation Street" (I think possibly the only show on the air in New Zealand). Steve was sacked out behind the couch. We were all pretty annoyed about how unprofessional he was that morning - being drunk, not being able to take a call he knew he was expecting almost making us miss an activity, making Susan do his job, not being able or willing to drive us there, and not even being in any way apologetic for his actions. Steve said we were going to head out right away for Picton, but even an idiot could see he was still drunk even though he said he was fine and was acting like nothing had happened. Sarah M, Kieran, Norrie, and Ronnie and I were of the opinion that we did not want to get into a vehicle with him driving. Kieran told him he would drive and it didn't take much insisting to make Steve agree. Add that to something we were annoyed about - Steve not being able to do his job and one of us having to drive for him - now and earlier this morning. We all got in the van and Kieran drove off. We stopped at a seal colony (one seal)
and then for lunch at a place called "The Store". I had had a peanut butter and jam sandwich when we got back to the hostel because I was starving, so didn't need any lunch. Then we pushed on to Picton - Kieran was a great driver. By that time it was about 4 pm and Steve was sober, so he took over to get us to the ferry. We stopped at the town centre until it was time to board, and I passed Steve on the street at one point and he asked how I was and I told him I was annoyed and proceeded to tell him what I thought of his behavior that day. He tried to defend himself at first instead of acknowledging any error on his part. He said that he had gone above and beyond the call of duty plenty of times on the trip and that he's been working his ass off etc... and can't he get cut some slack for one mistake. I said yeas he had, but it doesn't excuse him not doing his actual job - which he was paid to do etc.... I also told him he was unprofessional that morning being too drunk to drive and making Susan do his his work and that an apology would be appreciated. He grudgingly said "Sorry Dena". I told him it would be nice to apologize to the whole group. I don't think he did, though.
We got in line for the ferry, and since Andrea flew up to Wellington instead of coming with us to Kaikoura the ferry lady said he was due a refund of $45, which he didn't bother to take. We figure that would have been his payment for the crayfish right there, so oh well... The ferry was pretty small compared to the one we took south. Ronnie, Norrie, Fran, Susan and I sat on the top deck playing silly drawing games and watching Susan fold origami. The voyage was pretty rough and even I was feeling a bit queasy. Thankfully Ronnie had worked on cruise ships and was able to tell us where the best part of the ship was to sit to combat seasickness (the rear looking out past the ship).
We arrived at Wellington a bit after 9 and went to Base Wellington again, which is the crappiest of the Bases. A out-of-order elevator, some out-of-order toilets, and the last time we stayed there Fran and Jess had items stolen out the shower (underwear and money, respectively).Anyway, Jess was taking a shower before meeting up with a friend and someone stole her bag out of the shower with all her credit cards, money, and passport. I saw her running down the stairs to reception crying. Steve was down there and basically said "Bummer" (well, the kiwi equivalent thereof). He told us what room he was in and that he'd probably be out all night with friends. Basically no help at all. The rest of us scoured the hostel looking in trashcans and bathrooms and around the outside to see if maybe the thief had dumped the bag anywhere (no). Jess called the police to file a report and her parents to help her cancel her cards and call the consulate. Not much more we could do tonight, and tomorrow is Sunday, so off to bed. All in all, a pretty downbeat day (except for dolphins!).
If it sounds like I'm being really hard on Steve, I was pretty mad today - mostly at him and also at the fact that his actions today made me take another look at how the trip's been run so far and the other times that we've been late for things or there's been no breakfast and such and re-evaluate how I felt about the trip, which really annoys me.
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