High Adventure On The Deep Seas

We ended up spending the night in a backpackers in Nelson (which is a lovely city) and then, after a bit of creative directional driving we took a brief stop back in Picton and headed south to Kaikoura. Our plan had been to stay with a help exchange hostel for several days while we went out in search of whales. After one night and (therefore) one day's work we decided that the situation wasn't going to work out. As far as we could tell the entire hostel was run by one overworked and over hyper woman 24/7. Let's just say that her style of work and ours did not go well together. Instead we got a room at another hostel in town.
We have been searching for whales since we first left Los Angeles in the plane. Neither of us had ever seen a whale. Whenever we were within sight of the ocean one of us would usually say something like "Ok whale, breach... Now!" We did this not because we believe that we have the power to command the whales (if we did we would be one of the planeteers and together we could create Captain Planet) but rather because just imagine how cool it would be if it worked. However, much to our chagrin, it never worked. Whenever we would talk with people along the way we would eventually mention how much we wanted to see a whale and invariably they would say "Well, have you been to Kaikoura?" The way we "planned" (stumbled through) our trip we had entirely avoided Kaikoura which is here (42°24'8.30"S, 173°40'50.03"E). Kaikoura used to be a whaling town (back in the day) but now a days they have figured out that they can make tons of money by taking tourists on boats and showing them whales.
We have, in our trip, tried to keep our totally touristy things to a minimum. I'm from Washington, DC and I know that while 20 millions tourists visit DC each year hardly any of them ever leave the National Mall. As such they miss out on tons of the really great stuff that DC has to offer. This being said the National Mall is full of really incredible stuff that shouldn't be missed. In the same vein there are things in New Zealand that are so popular for a reason. We believe that whale watching in Kaikoura is one of them.
So on Friday the 23rd we set out in a boat with about 50 other people to look for the (it turns out not so) elusive Sperm Whale. The reason that Kaikoura is so good for whale watching is that right at where Kaikoura is there is a huge, very deep sea canyon only a short distance off the coast. You can sort of tell how dramatic the sea shelf is there by looking here on Google Earth (42°31'40.52"S, 173°34'36.89"E). The light color is about 60-80 meters deep the dark spot is about 2,000 meters deep. On board the ship they had a very cool animation where they show where we were on the water and then they drained the ocean and showed what it looks like topographically. It is stunning how quickly the land drops off. This super deep water is what attracts marine mammals to the coast there. There are several sperm whales that live in these waters year round. The canyon is also a very popular migration route for all sorts of whales.
On our trip we saw two sperm whales. There is something truly awesome about seeing something alive that is so big. The whales come up from the bottom after about 30-45 minutes of diving and then they float on the top for about 10 minutes while they catch their breath. Then it is a deep breath and right back down again. While they are breathing you can see them and they are amazing but not all that show stopping. They mostly just sit there breathing from their blowhole. Since the vast majority of the whale is below the surface the bit we see is perhaps less striking than hoped. However, they really make up for it when they dive because when they do they always give a beautiful view of their huge tail. It was amazing.


After some time spent watching the whales it is hard to believe how anything could surpass the thrill of seeing such huge creatures but the real show stealing performance came next. The whales are not the only creatures that are attracted by the deep ocean and the food it brings. Kaikoura also has a resident population of Dusky Dolphins. There are between 800 and 1000 dolphins that all live right there. Dolphins are cool enough as it is but this particular species is know for being incredibly acrobatic. It is hard to convey the scene even with pictures but try to imagine 1000 dolphins all jumping and leaping, some doing single and double flips, in every direction. It was spectacular! However, our trip to see the dolphins with the whale watch boat was not the best experience of our Kaikoura stop.
Last Thursday was my birthday (happy birthday to me!) and for my birthday Carrie gave me a dolphin swimming excursion! So this morning at 5:00 (very very morning) we got up and took off for our 5:30 dolphin encounter. Once again we donned the stylish look of the wetsuit and snorkel (I think it will catch on some day before long) and took off in search of marine wildlife. Being up so early we got to see the sunrise over the ocean which was really nice.

The people who took us out to the dolphins do not bait or entice the dolphins at all. Pretty much if we want them to pay attention to us we have to make ourselves interesting. The boat dropped us off into the water and we all started swimming in circles and diving down a bit and making noises through our snorkels. These are all things that the dolphins seem to enjoy. One woman said she sang the Welsh national anthem through her snorkel to critical acclaim. I'm sure that some of you out there reading this have had this or a similar experience but aside from having done it yourself I just can't describe it sufficiently. Like I said above, there were between 800 and 1000 dolphins in the water with us and in the 45 minutes that I was actually in the water I don't think I went more than a total of 30 seconds without having dolphins all around me. They were incredible. They like to swim around you in a tight circle and see if you can keep up. I thought I was doing pretty well until they would switch up the direction all of a sudden and that usually resulted in water in my snorkel.
After the actual swim they drove around in the boat at slow speeds and we got to take pictures and watch the dolphins from above water while the guide told us interesting facts about their behavior and ecology. I'm going to post the best of the pictures here. Some of them are from this morning and some of them are from the whale watching the day before. In the two days combined I think I took about 650 pictures.

On these two boat trips we also saw two types of albatross (Wandering and Shy), a Westland Petrel, and a Reef Heron. This last one was very exciting because we were not expecting it but we had been looking for it for some time now (Carrie gets all the credit for that spot).

Well, after an exciting few days in Kaikoura we have now returned to Christchurch. As a side note this means that we have now completed the circuit that we started around New Zealand 7 months ago. We did not set out to do this circuit but it has worked beautifully. Now we will spend our last month or so going back to places we have been to get better looks at pieces we've missed. We are staying with some Quaker friends of ours (god bless the Quakers) for a few days (43°34'3.30"S, 172°39'36.55"E) until Carrie can get the first in a series of rabies vaccinations that she needs to work with bats back home this summer. Then we will head out the the Banks Peninsula (43°48'14.69"S, 172°55'10.95"E) for a while. We have great internet here so we should be online all the time. Thanks for reading this long post I hope the pictures made it worth it.

Matt