Today I saw orcas in the harbor, or to be more exact, my partner saw them with his amazing – still fully functional eyes. Then I said…”lets go chase them!”

As they were slowly doing a tour of Wellington harbor’s coastline, it was quite easy to hop in the car (with our hydrophones of course) and go driving after them. Naturally, there was a bunch of other people chasing them too, so we joined the orca circus. A parade of cars politely following them around the bays, anyone who could afford a few minutes out of their day was there, and maybe even those who couldn’t afford it.

Sometimes, when nature calls, you just have to stop whatever seemingly vital task you are doing, and look at something amazing in our world…just to remember that the task you were doing, isn’t the be all and end all. Our world, rolling around our beautiful star, doesn’t need us at all. It doesn’t need our tax money, it doesn’t need our laundry, it really doesn’t need our ever recurring traffic jams.

Earth can shake us all off at any time, like a dog sheds its winter coat. It is a humbling thought to know that no matter what we do to the planet, she can wipe us away at any moment, purge us like an unwanted virus. The point of acknowledging this as often as I can, is so that I can enjoy our green home that much more. To be thankful for each day I have here, especially the ones where I get to see dolphins or orca, or rainbows or unicorns…oh wait, not that last one. (I wish, I wish!)

Well, anyway, we didn’t manage to record any sounds of the orca, they just weren’t clicking today. However, just seeing them, only meters away form the shore filled my heart with joy and my day with inspiration.

One day, I will go into explaining the depths of my obsession with these wolves of the sea, but for now let it just be enough to say, they compelled me to get off my seat and get out in the day. Then, they compelled me to write, write, write and get my words out, like spray from a blow hole. PFTTTTT!!!

Love and respect to our mammal friends who dwell in the deep.

xo