Whale Tale

April 04, 2005

I walked out to the Whale Watch HQ (which doubles as a train stop cleverly named the Whaleway Station) for my 09.30 trip. We were bused out to the quay and loaded onto the boat (called "world of enlightenment").
We cruised out from Kaikoura, taking in the beautiful mountain backdrop, and headed into deeper water. Once out far enough one of the guides used a hydrophone to listen for the whales. Once the general direction is determined we head out and watch for the tell-tale spray from the blow holes of the whales.
Sperm whales are the largest carnivores in the world and the deepest diving mammals. The dive for very long periods and when they surface they usually only do so for between eight and fifteen minutes to catch their breath before another dive.
We managed to see two males, each around eighteen metres long, as long as our boat, and watched them for about ten minutes before they disappeared back into the blue. Not before I got a great photo of the classic whale tail in the air.
On our return to the quay we saw some Wandering Albatross, the largest flighted birds in the world, and a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals. We were also lucky enough to see a pod of around 200-300 Dusky Dolphins, one of the most acrobatic of all the species, and were subjected to fifteen minutes of them surfing the boats bow wave and flipping and leaping through the air.
Not a bad day really!