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Published: December 11th 2005
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8.12.05
We arrived in Kaikoura (we've come here because it's home to the sperm whales and various other species of whale that migrate through Kaikoura aswell) had a walk around the town, one street, really nice though. Got booked into a site near town and made our for sale sign for the van. We met a nice English couple, had our tea and then went for a walk on the pebble beach constantly looking out to sea for any sign of whales, de ja vu. We had a drink in the Strawberry and then back to bed.
9.12.05
We took some photos of the van today to put on 'trade me' the same as e-bay, this cost us $20 until it is sold. We took one of our books into the second hand bookshop and exchanged it for an Australia lonely Planet guide, all prepared! Then we booked our trip to see the whales tomorrow, $125 each about 50 pounds each) We chose the early trip as the sea is supposed to be calmer, so it was for 7.15am.
We drove to the peninsula where you could see the seals off shore laying on the rocks. There was one really
close on the shore just sleeping, they are so fat and lazy, they appear to have a really good life! We walked to the top of the cliff to look out at the sea and the snow topped mountains which extend down to the shore line. We had our lunch and then moved to a different campsite. This was because there was not much to do in town and it had a free spa and heated pool. We went for a dip and did some lengths and had our own private spa for half an hour that evening, which was lovely.
That night we had our tea, went for a long walk exploring along the beach, through a memorial park, which comemorated the first world war, with real whale jaw bones as an archway. We went back and watched a little tv, the office, and then to bed.
10.12.05
We were up early for our trip even though it was raining. Got dressed and headed off anyway. Arrived at the office (where it said it was going to be a little choppy, Mel not happy) we paid and booked in. Watched the safety video. Then from here we boarded
the bus for a short drive to the South Bay where we boarded the catameran.
So the bumpy ride began. We travelled out for about 20 minutes to the edge of the continental shelf where they are known to be feeding. Now the sperm whale comes to the surface for about 10 minutes at a time and then dives to feed for 40 to 60 minutes so we have to be patient and lucky. They are the 4th biggest mammal in the world. Our driver stopped the boat and put his microphone in the water on each side of the boat to listen for whales. No luck first time, so it was back inside to carry on.
Second stop he heard something, 2 whales. When they stop making the noises it means they are on the way up so we waited a while. After drifing for a while someone spotted a spout of water and one came to the surface! We were about 20m away and you could see how big it was even though only a small proportion was above the water at anyone time. We watched it for about 5 to 10 minutes and then by the way
the whale is breathing the guide can tell when it is going to dive again so he told us to get ready for the tail! It was so cool, it arched it's back and pushed under so it's tail came right up and out as it dove down. So cool!!
Because he was now going to be gone for so long we moved on again.
Using the same technique as before the driver found another couple of whales near by. This time Andy spotted the whale break the surface. We watched it again and it did exactly the ame as the last one, we got a little closer to this one though. When it went down I got the perfect picture of the fin full on, but the camera wouldn't click, but that was really cool.
We also saw albatross which have a wing span of 3 meters.
We then set off back making the trip about 2 and a half hours. It was good that we saw 2 whales, but previous days had seen killer whales and dolphins as well as the sperm whales. It was a bit choppy and there were a lot of ill people, not good
for Melissa.
When we arrived safely back on land we went and hired Andy a rod so he could go fishing for the day on the beach. We tried 4 different spots spinning for fish but no luck. This is not the first time he's been fishing and not caught anything!
We then went and booked into a different site, as the first one was not that nice, the second was a treat, expensive, this one was nice. We had some tea, no fish, and walked into town. we went into a couple of pubs, the place was empty and beacuse we haven't been drinking we are such light weights!
11.12.05
This morning we had a brief walk around town to buy a postcard and check the progress on our van. We had an e-mail from someone interested, so fingers crossed.
We drove to Hanmer Springs through Rotherham, which Andy was very excited about. It even had a Rotherham hotel and school! And more than likely a better football team!
We arrived in the rain to Hanmer Springs, had our lunch in our van and went straight to our site where we played table tennis all day, we
are getting good! We did a bit of dancing, had our tea with treats while watching a film, the bandits with Bruce Willis.
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Tony & Rhonda
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GREAT
One of the best Blogs yet, it must have been worth feeling a little rough to see the whales, Excellent!