Spotting Whale Tails

---

Part 4 18/02/07 - 20/02/07 Whales tails and goodbye to the South Island

Leaving the West coast, we doubled back through Arthur’s Pass, back to Christchurch. The route runs alongside the famous scenic trans-alpine railway and winds round more glorious scenery. After one final night in Christchurch we headed up the east coast for Kaikoura, New Zealand’s whale watching capital.

Off the coast of Kaikoura the ocean floor drops away dramatically, opening up a huge underwater canyon, home to resident Giant Sperm whales, which surface regularly between their deep feeding dives. The whale watching boat, equipped with some sort of echo-location, sonar whale finding equipment, picked up 3 giant sperm whales for us to view. Only two thirds of the giant whales are visible above the water, with the top of their heads and spouting blow-holes. They stay on the surface for a few minutes to replenish their cells with precious oxygen and then fluke dive back down, flicking their tails into the air as they descend.

We carried on up the coast to Picton, passing the vineyards of grapes ready to become the exceedingly drinkable Malborough region Sauvingnon Blanc and after relaxing for a couple of hours in town, headed for the ferry terminal.

We clocked over the trip meter twice and rolled onto the Inter-islander ferry with 2550 camper k’s under our belt and a sense of sadness to leave such a beautiful place, none of us knowing whether we would ever return.

---

Photos

Going down
Giant Sperm whale dives for another deep feed

Something in the water?
the long grey looking log that is in fact a giant sperm whale

Little Nick
One of the resident whales