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Published: November 18th 2008
After breakfast we drove into Kaikoura, a truly picture post card town. Long, clean beaches with white surf all backed with the setting of snow capped mountains, WOW. The sun was really hot this morning, if fact the weather has been really good to us for 95% of the trip. We headed straight for the Whale Watch tour office. We expected to have to wait around for a couple of days to get a booking; luckily we squeezed in on the 11am tour. It couldn’t have been more perfect. Visibility was a good 5 miles and the sea was calm. Once we were over the continental shelf, approx 2km off shore we started to see Royal Albatrosses, Cape Pigeon and after 20 minutes our first of three encounters with Sperm Whale. It’s hard to put into words; I’ve waited a long, long time to see these majestic mammals with my own eyes. Pilar did a great job getting movies and I took the stills. When the 1st whale finally dived and we all saw the classic tail fluke sweeping through the air before disappearing beneath the waves the whole of the group on the catamaran gasped and applauded. Pili and I
couldn’t stop smiling. As if to make up for the disaster missing the whales in Tonga today we had a further two close encounters, the crew said this was very unusual. The whole experience last about 2hrs. The trip cost us $280NZ but it was worth every penny. I’m not sure how we are going to top this, though I’m now saying this daily and keep getting proved wrong, watch this space!
The rest of the day was spent at the beach chilling, we were quite knackered and the hot sun drained the last of our energies.
In the evening we parked up by the race course in South Bay and watched another amazing sunset and then crashed and burned. I had a terrible night because of the sand fly bites I’d received while playing with the young seals the previous day. Believe me, give me mosquitoes any day. I have about 25 bites on my feet and ankles and it’s driving me mad. I may have to buy a cheese grater to sort the itching out, woe is me.
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