Earlier in the year I decided to take the opportunity to take the ferry to Diamond Harbour while children still travelled free on their MetroCard. We went to the remains of Godley House, looked at the art in Stoddart Cottage—trying to whisk them past some less-than-child-friendly paintings, played in the park, walked around the seashore and then made our way back to the wharf.

We waited for the ferry, but it was coming only slowly across the harbour from Lyttelton. And then one of the people on the wharf pointed to the middle of the harbour: “There! A whale!” At first I couldn’t see anything, but then I could see the “blow” of the whale. We watched as the whale surfaced again and again, slowly making its way towards Diamond Harbour. It must have been a humpback whale making its way around Lyttelton Harbour. It came fairly close to the shore and then swam northwards towards the Harbour entrance. We did not run up to the lookout point to see it glide past, because at that time the ferry finally arrived. As we were making our way across the harbour we could still see the blow of the whale in the distance a couple of times. We certainly didn’t mind to arrive a bit later in Lyttelton. While we had seen dolphins before on Lyttelton Harbour, this was the first time we were so close to a whale.

For me it was an unexpected moment of excitement and joy. Serendipity is the word sometimes used to describe these unexpectedly good events. I think that we all have those moments. We can accept them as gifts and be thankful for them. And yes, animals—whether wild or domestic—can give us some of the most memorable moments.