Middle-aged flash packers

We booked a trip to go whale watching in Kona today.
The journey to Kona takes 2.5 hours the scenic route so we were off and out by 8.30am. It was a beautiful day and we managed to find time to wander along a short trail to a beautiful cove, just beyond some botanical gardens.
The East of Big Island is very wet but just drips with gorgeous flowers and vegetation. The west side is much drier and much of the landscape is from old lava flows.
As we drove into Kona, I saw whales breaching in the ocean. There must have been at least 3.
We arrived at the harbour slightly early and in the end the boat set off late. Five minutes after setting off we saw a pod of spinner dolphins. They jumped around in the boat’s wake – I love the way dolphins just do stuff for fun.
It took sometime before we spotted any whales but eventually we saw a male humpback who elegantly slapped his tail at us and dived underwater. The skipper put a hydrophone into the water and we could hear the whale’s song. It was not particularly romantic – think a very bad violin player crossed with someone with awful wind. All the same it was pretty amazing to hear it.

Next we saw a mother and her baby. Then for sometime we saw nothing. The captain decided to take us further along the coast, close to where I’d seen the whales earlier. We were rewarded by a whale breaching very close by – wonderful.
We were late back because the captain had done this for us, and some people literally had half an hour to spare before they were due on another trip. Anyway, everyone was happy and the tips were generous.
We took the quicker route home, directly across the island. Quicker but not nice weather and by the time we got home we were pretty knackered. Not the best time then to get on with domestic chores then.
A wash needed doing so I gathered dirty clothing together and toddled off to the communal laundry area. There I popped everything in the washing machine and headed back to the apartment.
An hour later I went to check on the washing only to find I’d put it all in the tumble drier and had some very dry but still dirty washing. Ho hum.