A whale of a time!

A whale of a time!
Kaikoura, New Zealand

Kaikoura, New Zealand

For years and years and years, Kaikoura has been on my ‘To-go’ list as it is one of the best whale spotting locations. The reason for this is that the Kaikoura Peninsula extends into the Hikurangi Trench which is around 3000meters deep and just 80 kilometers off shore in Kaikoura. The deep water rich in crayfish and plankton is the perfect fishing grounds for the whales and dolphins. The most common whale found here is the Sperm Whale. .

So here are some sperm whale factoids for you:

The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale and also the largest toothed predator;

The males are on average 16 meters in length but can reach up to 20 meters with their head making up 1/3 of their size;

On average the male weighs 45 tons, females are just 15 ton;

The sperm whales clicking can be as loud as 230 decibels making it the loudest sound produced by any animal;

It has the largest brain of any animal on earth, more than 5 times heavier than a humans;

Sperm whales can live for 60 years;

The head of a sperm whale contains a liquid wax called spermaceti, which is where the whale gets its name.

To say that I was desperate to get out onto a boat in Kaikoura and see these beasts with my own eyes is probably the understatement of the year. The problem that we were having for a change was the weather in Kaikoura as with everywhere else in NZ was conspiring against us.

We went for a walk through the town and along the beach and watched the waves crashing up the beach and didn’t feel particularly confident that this was a good time to go out on a boat. We went to the whale watching company and had a chat with them and unbelievably they were so booked out we could barely get a space on a boat let alone pick our date or time. Reluctantly Tim agreed that we should sign up for the first boat of the day at 6am the following morning as it is always the case that the best sightings are in the morning.

As our alarm went off at 5 am, we crawled out of Blondini and looked at the grey misty sky and willed it to clear up and be a perfect day for us. Dressed and with coffee and breakfast done we set off and after about a minute of driving through the campsite realised that Blondinis boot was open, oops, 5am does not agree with us.

At the Whale watch shop we were greeting by the stressed looking staff who were making an announcement that the weather was pretty terrible, swell was high and visibility was low but the captain was willing to head out to the whale grounds to see how it looks. We could either cancel and re arrange or risk going out, if there was nothing to see we would head back and get a full refund so we took the risk and agreed to go. We had read way too many blogs and reviews of sea sickness so taking no chances we donned our wrist bands and took our sea sick tablets. All I can say is that I wish our fellow passengers had done the same. As 10 minutes into the journey at least 50% of the boat were reaching for their sea sick bags. We had an absolutely awesome young Maori guy as our guide and he was just so funny. Although we find the singsongy Maori accent so cute we could listen to it all day. We made a few stops to stick the sonar listener into the sea to try and track the whales and in no time at all we were shooting off to where the captain had heard the whales. This may have been an expensive trip by our standards but it was so well run and professional it was unreal.

The sperm whales rest on the top of the water breathing air before heading off on one of their massive dives. This can mean that if you find a whale they will be on the surface for about 8 minutes before showing you a glimpse of their magnificent tail as they descent down on an average dive of 400 meters for around 35 minutes.

We were so lucky that about 30 minutes into our journey we found a whale, what a beautiful beast. I ran to the top deck and was just in awe of this magnificent creature. Sadly the vast majority of the boat were not having quite so much fun and were hung over the opposite side of the boat regurgitating their breakfasts, nice.

In total we managed to see 3 sperm whales, and one of those we saw twice. Just unreal, especially when another boat came on the opposite side of the whale and gave us some indication of their scale, just the biggest most special thing ever.

I would personally have liked to stayed out at sea forever watching the whales sadly the tour was over and the green contingent of the boat who had probably seen nothing but the side of the boat and the inside of the sick bag needed to go to shore.

The downside of a 5am start and a sea sick tablet is that we then proceeded to get Blondini back to the campsite and slept for the next 5 hours.

I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I was reading Whale Watch Kaikoura’s website and they just happened to mention that the orcas had been in the whaling grounds yesterday, seriously I missed my no.1 wild animal encounter by 1 day!!!! Nooooooooooooo!

After Kaikoura we headed a little bit inland to Hanmer Springs, but as we were driving out of Kaikoura I just could not believe my eyes as dolphins were just jumping out of the ocean left right and centre. Tim didn’t believe me and finally I made him pull over to see for himself. Not the best photos as they were a bit far out, but we watched on a a pod of dolphins just kept jumping and cris-crossing through each other, awesome.

Hanmer Springs is a cute little town, with very very very popular hot springs. These are pretty posh and clean hot springs compared to the likes of Ngawha, but we felt obliged to give them a go. I had found a discount voucher that got us a 30 minute private hot pool, assuming that they would tell me it was fully booked I took it and hoped for the best. Unbelievably they just asked me what time we wanted it. The main pools were really really busy, but there was plenty of space so we tried them all out for temperature before heading to our private pool. The most awesome little room with a sunken hot pool and a view out into a rainforest garden, how good for free!

We had one last place to visit in Hanmer and with a discount voucher in hand we set off to a little petting zoo, for one reason and one reason only. Tim wanted a selfie with a llama.

Selfie with a llama done, crikey we are running out of animals for selfies.

Next stop, Christchurch.