It's always worth the Seasickness

Hey guys,

Apparently as I get older I am overcome by various ailments. For example, I wasn't lactose intolerant until my last year of University and I have now become partial to sea sickness. Today was an absolutely gorgeous one - perfect for our whale watch off of the South Bay of Kaikoura. In between sessions with a white paper bag I was lucky enough to catch sight of 4 Sperm Whales, a pod of Dusky Dolphins, a few NZ Fur Seals and an Albatross. Tomorrow we are going on an Abaltross encounter to see these incredible birds up close. They have the largest wingspan of all birds at 3.2 metres in length! The encounter will be on yet another boat but the experience and photos are always worth the sea sickness.

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Today we went on an Albatross encounter -- again, worth the queasiness. At least today there was no visit with the white paper bag -- I held my own.
We encountered the largest flying birds in the world. How awesome it is to be able to say that. Allistair, our skipper took us out on a 2 hour boat ride to see various species of birds that live off of the shores of NZ. The most impressive obviously was the Wandering Albatross.

The Birds are baited by a block of frozen fish bits - this isn't an unnatural situation as these birds make a living out of following fishing boats hoping to steal some fish from them. They are similar to the typical gull in terms of their scavenging characteristics. They are super efficient in the air (like the Australasian Gannets) using dynamic soaring. This is also why they nest on cliffs, making it easy to take-off.
They are absolutely stunning birds. If anyone remembers the end of Jurrassic Park when they're flying away in the helicopter and the Ptarodactyls are flying beneath them -- yeah that's what the Albatross remind me off; these ancient marine creatures with a massive wingspan.
The Albatross (as well as all other petrels) have a "nose-tube" that allows them to get rid of the salt from the saltwater which would otherwise make them very sick if they had to live off of it. The salt drips out of the "nose-tube" -- they filter the salt out -- their own little Brita. Up close to the birds you can even see a yellowy-pink stain near where they're ears would be and around the back of their necks -- this is said to be Albatross snot -- as the salt drips out when they're flying it gets caught on this part of their head. It is essentially snot.

We saw heaps of other birds such as the Northern Giant Petrel and pigeon petrels as well as other types of Albatross (7 species breed only in NZ, out of 20). Wicked trip - it was a great time we even saw some more Dusky Dolphins and another Sperm Whale. Totally worth the Seasickness.

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