So, I decide to do whale watching this morning. Pack up me stuff, bright and early outside the hotel at 7.15. Get to the port and a woman hands me a wetsuit. No, I’m not going diving (they also do diving trips). Oh no, it’s for the whales. Erk? No one told me and I haven’t brought my swimming costume. Turns out, if you go whale watching in Tahiti, you can float over and snorkel above or next to them. Seems to be usual practice. Muggins here gets all retiring and British and says she’ll just watch. Then I lost my breakfast over the side of the boat – when I usually don’t have too many difficulties with boats (although I do remember a very unpleasant combination of a cross channel ferry and a force 8 gale…)

However, we saw several humpback whales including two mothers with calves and one of them obligingly breached in front of us. Not to mention the one posing with its tail out of the water in front of Moorea as if it had heard David Attenborough was doing a calendar.

One of the other people on the trip got a photo of the breach which he said he had emailed me. Hasn’t turned up yet but if it does, I will post it. (Needless to say I did not manage any useful photos). This is a downloaded photo off the internet that was very like what I actually saw. For information 😎

And, for those of you who have had (or feel they will have) some involvement with Slimming World or Weight Watchers, you might like to know that a baby humpback whale puts on 2kg an hour! A bit like me and the ‘all you can eat’ buffet