Whale watching

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I took the train from Picton down the coast to Kaikoura, a small town set against the backdrop of the snowcapped Kaikoura mountain range. The train follows the coast and has an open windowless carriage where you can stand and admire the view of mountains, ocean and seal colonies for a few minutes, after which you either hurry back to a warm carriage or die of hypothermia - it's still winter and the further south you go the colder it gets, especially near the coast when there's a wind blowing. There isn't much to do in Kaikoura except watching whales. I didn't even have to book myself on a tour to see a whale as there was one in the sea in the bay in front of the railway station (or Whaleway Station as those crazy kiwis have officially named it) as soon as I got off the train. But to get up close to one I went on a tour the next day which went out a few miles from the shore. The boats used for the tours are equipped with GPS that allows them to go to the precise location where a whale was last seen, and with underwater microphones that they use to detect the telltale clicking sounds that whales make when they are underwater.

We didn't have to wait too long until they located a Giant Sperm Whale. These are the largest toothed mammals on earth - the males weigh about 50 tons and can be up to 18 metres in length. They need to consume several tons of food every day just to sustain themselves but aren't fussy eaters - they will eat just about anything smaller than they are (including humans if they get the chance) but usually feed on giant squid or octopuses. They dive deep into the ocean to feed for about 40 minutes before returning to the surface for a few minutes let their meal go down and spray some water into the air just for the fun of it. So you don't get very long to actually see them and you don't see all that much of their huge blubbery bodies, although when they dive down again they do stick their tails in the air to say goodbye to the gawping tourists.

Next stop is Christchurch, another three hour train journey down the coast.

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