We woke up this morning, and took a nervous peak through the curtains…and much to our amazement and sheer joy we saw clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine!
As we stood on the porch to our cabin the views out to the Kaikoura Mountain ranges were stunning.
We were ecstatic, as this meant that the weather was in our favour for our pre-booked tours.
An hour later, down at the ‘Whale Way Station’ we checked in for our 30 minute flight out over the South Pacific Ocean to go whale spotting. We met our pilot ‘Scotty’ and went through the safety briefing. We got to wear some trendy little bum bags; in case we needed to land on the water these would then convert into life vests.
We has a talk about what species of whale we would be spotting, a male sperm whale, which resides here in the coastal waters of Kaikoura year round.
We hopped in the small 4 seater chopper and Scotty fired up the engines, we were ready and raring to go spot us some whales! Ben was in the front seat next to Scotty, and Nicola and Tracy were like two naughty kids in the back seat.
As we took off from their base and circled round over the town the views were spectacular, we could not have asked for a better day weather wise.
We flew South along the coast, with all eyes on the water, however we were not in luck. As Scotty landed on the Spyglass Headland, and we stepped out, we knew that as these were wild creatures we should be prepared to not see one.
It was then that he had a call through from another whale spotting tour, he punched the coordinates into his GPS and we were off. No sooner had we set off that we saw a small plane circling a large black whale….Eureka!!!!!
The large male sperm whale was approximately 17 metres in length, and swam gracefully through the water.
It is only males that take residence here, as the sensible females make a permanent home in the tropics. The males are on average 19 metres in length, and need a huge amount of food to sustain them, which they find in the coastal waters around Kaikoura.
As these huge creatures only need to surface for a short time, to take in air, we were ready and waiting for it to make a dive…which it did in style.
We were all thoroughly amazed at what we had just seen, a moment none of us will ever forget.
As we flew back to base, we thanked Scotty and posed for a group shot in front of our chopper….don’t we look good with our snazzy bum bags!
What a morning…but everything was still crossed for this afternoons trip to go ahead!
After lunch we went to check in at the Dolphin Encounters office, and we were SO happy to hear that the trip was running!! Obviously, it came with a warning that as the dolphins were wild animals we were not guaranteed to see any…but we figured luck was on our side today.
So, once kitted up; wetsuit, wet-jacket, hood, booties, snorkel, mask and slippers we boarded the bus that would take us to the jetty.
Once on the boat we were launched into the water and set off along the coast to where a plane had earlier that day spotted a pod of dusky dolphins. The sea was choppy, and did nothing for our stomachs, even after taking seasickness tablets.
As we bounced through the swell we were lucky enough to see some amazing sea birds, including cape petrels (below right), giant petrels and albatross (below left).
As we reached the pod, and pulled in front of them there were quite a few green faces. We put on the rest of our gear and slipped into the sea.
As all the snorkelers looked identical there was no way of keeping track of each other…so we swam in sheer amazement alongside these beautiful creatures.
The water was only 10 degrees, and felt icy cold…however you soon forgot about it when swimming with hundreds of dusky dolphins by your side. The dusky dolphins are commonly found along the east coast of the south island, and in Kaikoura they can be found year round. They are reputed to be amongst the most acrobatic of all dolphins species and their spectacular leaps can include jumps, side slaps and somersaults.
As the pod passed us by we climbed back onto the boat, and the skipper raced past them and positioned us in front of them again. As we slipped back in for our 2nd swim we were told to sing to them, as this would make them play with us….La, La, La, La!
As we sung away the pod played and circled us as we floated on the surface, passing with inches of our bodies.
Our 3rd and last swim was equally as impressive, even more so when the skipper told us that this was a very large pod, of approximately 1000 dusky dolphins!
Once back on board the boat we floated alongside the pod for awhile so we could watch them on the surface…unfortunately the rocking had finally got to us all and we became best friends with the sick buckets!
So much so, that we were nicknamed the ‘bucket team’ by the staff! She was even nice enough to wrap us up in a lovely dotty blanket.
Back on dry land we decided on a relaxing night at the cabin, warming up.
What an amazing day!
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