Jo and Sarb's Year Off

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Day 320 (Wed 23 May) - Kaikoura

It rained pretty heavily in the night which was disappointing as the reason we had come to Kiakoura was to go whale watching.

Fortunately the rain eased off and we made our way to the Whale Watching centre. After being warned that there was a serious risk of sea sickness we booked on the next tour which was at 11am. Jo overheard a tour guide tell her group that it was really rough today so popped to the shop and bought a couple of sea sickness (roughly the size of eggs; clearly it stopped you being sick by just plugging you up).

Jumped on a bus which took us swiftly off to the harbour and onto the boat. We were advised to sit at the back of the boat if we suffered from sea sickness. Feeling brave, we sat near the front.

Settled in comfy chairs we set off. As soon as we left the harbour the captain seemed to put the throttle to the max and we speed off. We were flying through the air and came down on the waves with a massive bump. It was like being at Alton Towers. The journey continued like this for the next 20 minutes as we made our way out to sea. By this point most of the passengers looked slightly green and many were grasping for sea bags. Fortunately we were ok for the time being.

As we bumped along the guide told us how Kiakoura had an unusual coastline. It is relatively shallow at about 60/80 odd metres deep until you reach a couple of km's offshore where the depth suddenly drops to about 1600m. For sperm whales this is an ideal feeding area.

Soon we were bobbing up and down on the rough sea watching the captain lower a microphone into water in the hope of listening in to the whales. Whilst this was going on a fair number of the other passengers were being sick.

A moment later the captain whizzed back up to his post and we hurtled off to an area that seemed most likely to have a sperm whale. As we approached the area we were invited to stand outside on deck. We struggled out and stood on the narrow walkway pitching every which way. Soon enough we saw the back of a whale. Amazing to watch it breathe!

Thereafter we hurtled around the water and saw a couple of other whales. The guides were excellent as they let you know when the whale was about to dive down flicking its tail as it went ( [1], [2], [3] ).

Absolutely brilliant to watch them.

Headed back to shore and as we neared it the boat slowed. Standing outside we thought we were about to view another whale but suddenly we spotted a pod of dusky dolphins streaming towards the boat. And when we mean pod we mean a pod, some 100 plus dolphins.

Mesmerising watching them jumping and cavorting through the air ( [1], [2], [3]).

Headed back to terra firma where we caught the bus back to town and bought some fish and chips for a late lunch.

Spent the rest of the evening chilling.

1 Comments:

  • What an amazing experience and wonderful photos - we really want to do this!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At 3:09 pm  

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