This weekend, D and I decided to make the most of the beautiful winter weather and drive up to Kaikoura. It's been pretty drizzly and cloudy all week, but on Friday the clouds finally cleared and a beautiful sunny weekend was promised! So we booked a cabin with our favourite campsite chain (Top10), threw some warm clothes in a bag, and hopped in the car.
Kaikoura is a town on the East Coast of New Zealand's South Island, and is a three hour drive north of Christchurch. It's renowned for it's abundant wildlife and stunning scenery.
And it didn't disappoint.
With the mountains on one side, and the sea on the other, it feels rugged and rural, but the town is well serviced with places to eat, a range of different accommodation options, and even a couple of local breweries (Emporium beer has a tap room to purchase riggers, or growlers, of draught beer, and Kaikoura brewing company beer can be sampled in the local bars).
Back to Saturday afternoon, and we decided to hunt down (not literally, obviously!) some of Kaikoura's more famous wildlife; the fur seals. There is a seal colony just outside the town on Point Kean Peninsula, which you can walk, cycle or drive to. And these guys are pretty fearless. We spotted one seal lazing around on the rocks who seemed to be posing for us, and one in the trees as we drove into Kaikoura, who just stared lazily at us as we took a photo. They are obviously used to being the centre of attention, and boy do they enjoy it!
Our wildlife adventure continued on Sunday with a whale watching tour. We opted for the boat tour with Whale Watch Kaikoura, but there are various flight options too. We had booked one day in advance at the iSite (tourist information) and were pretty lucky to get a space. These tours are super popular; in the winter they only run two tours a day, while in the summer there are four, but they do still get fully booked so it's best to plan ahead.
After a safety briefing and a warning about seasickness (apparently, milk and fruit juice are the things to avoid before getting on the boat!), we piled on to the catarmaran. These boats are specially designed to minimise disruption to marine life: they are quiet and have internal propellers to prevent any collisions with marine animals. The toilets are also completely contained, so no polluting the ocean. Thumbs up for responsible tourism!
The crew use hydrophones (a kind of underwater microphone that looks like a metal detector) to locate the whales by listening for the clicking noises made by them, as well as simply watching out for the 'spouts' - the fountain of water that the whale expels from the blowhole. Once a whale is located, it's full-speed ahead to catch him/her before they dive back down to feed.
WHALE UP!
We were super lucky on our tour to see two sperm whales. Before they dove back down to feed, they both waved us off with a stunning tail flick! The photos do not do justice to the experience of seeing these huge, beautiful creatures up close, or the noise of that water spraying from their blowholes!
As we were chasing down a third whale, which unfortunately dived back down before we reached it, we were suddenly surrounded by a huge pod of dusky dolphins - the crew estimated several hundred dolphins(!!). These gorgeous creatures came right up to the front of the boat, playing and jumping all around us. There were dolphins as far as we could see,. What an absolutely awesome experience.
Winter is a great time for whale watching, particularly in Kaikoura, as Humpback Whales migrate from the south to the warmer seas of the north, and have been spotted in Kaikoura waters along with Orca, Blue Whales, Pilot Whales and of course, dolphins.
Have you ever been whale watching? Where did you go? What kind of whales did you spot?
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