Little Mick, Noodle, Teaki and Hector

---

We met up with Helen Mesure (a fellow osteopath) in Kaikoura yesterday and went whale watching. Very surreal meeting someone for a day out half way arround the world though.
From the information centre we were all bused to a large high speed katamaran. We went for about 30 min out to the open sea and then it was more Whale hunting then watching for most of the time. The Maori captain of the ship stopped periodically to hang a 6 foot listening device into the water to discern any clicks that whales apparently make to orrientate themselves.
The whales in this area are spermwhales who like all marine mamals need to periodically come to the surface to breath. They can spend on average up to 60 min. on one dive and only breath for 5 -13 min. it wasn't peticularly long that we saw them. We saw three different whales (hence the names in the title) and it was magnificent to see them dive again after they had done their breathing. Elegantly lifting their tail fin out of the water before disappearing into the depth.
Spermwhales received their names from the first hunters: Spermwhales have a chamber that holds 2.5 tons of oil in their head, this apparently is sticky to the touch and therefore the hunters thought it was sperm! Did they only have sperm in their heads?!
We spent the rest of the day with Helen and had a lovely time catching up and getting tipsy on New Zealand wine in the evening. Something we should repeat back in the UK.
Terry and Claudi didn't have enough of marine mamals yet so we went swimming with dolphins today: The small Hector's dolphin is only found in the waters around New Zealnd. Again we were taken off shore this time in wet suits and dolphins were spotted within minutes and we were let out into the water. It was surprising how little the cold water affected us in the wet suits and we spent the next 50 minutes splashing around in the water. Due to the wet suits we could almost float and Terry sang loudly to his hearts delight (anything from Hey Jude to That's Amore) to attract these playful dolphins. And they swam around us up to 30cm close. It was so much fun! They were incredibly fast and agile. They were pretty to watch as they swam in formation and breached the surface. It was very obvious that they were nosy and playful (they could have just swam away if they had wanted to and they weren't given any food or anything).
The dolphin swimming was based in Akaroa a old french colony village at a beautiful bay. We had some wonderful fish and chips there and then took a scenic (as if not everything here was scenic) route back to christchurch. Look on the link below to see Terry with dolphin in the water.
http://www.rapidimage.net/media/mediaView.php?media_id=4131303

So we are very exhilarated! Lots of love Terry and Claudi

---

Photos

Terry and Hector
It's to your left Terry!

Comments

[Cat Mear]

Kaikoura
- Can you believe I did the exact same thing exactly 10 years ago....well the swimming with the dolphins. I unfortuntely got far far too tipsy (as you say) and did not get up early enough to see the whales.......enjoy the south island. Definately reccommend taking a walk near Mount Cook and the Routeburn Trek was amazing if you're up for it. Take care Cat

[Louise S]

Wow! Want to swap?
Well guys, it really is great watching what a wonderful time you're having. In all the chaos here it's quite a pleasure to read about your adventures. I think you may struggle to ever get back to what is 'normal'! Lots of love L x