Whale spotting

Trip Start Aug 14, 2008
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Trip End Sep 25, 2008


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Flag of New Zealand  , South Island,
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Day 175 - Was picked up at 8am by the Stray bus driver 'Thumper' and got on the little orange minibus to find all the passengers (about 10) to be female!  I started to regret my decision of using Stray but convinced myself this wouldn't be the case the whole way and as it turns out, the Kiwi Experience bus doing the same journey had just the one poor passenger on their big bus!  We had a breakfast stop at a cafe and I met a British girl called Liz.

The drive to Kaikoura was beautiful and it was a beautiful day - the Canturbury Plains are basically very flat farmland.  Kaikoura itself is stunning - surrounded by snowy mountains, green hills and turquoise ocean.  Kaikoura is in a unique location with a deep ocean trench a few hundred metres from the shore which is a haven for sealife and myself, Liz and another girl took this opportunity to see some sperm whales.  The Adelphi hostel is like an old fashioned English pub, which is unusual and after checking in, we got picked up and taken to a little airstrip for our whale spotting.  We were taken up in a little plane by a guy no older than me and were so lucky to have the clear, sunny weather reflecting and making the ocean so green - giving us perfect vision, not only of the marine life, but of the amazing surrounding area also.

We saw 3 sperm whales - one alone and two together, side by side, which is very rare.  They stay on the surface for 8 minutes before diving back to their trench and we circled around them, being able to see the whole whale (rather than just the few metres surrounding the airhole that you can see from a boat) - it was incredible - I have never seen a whale in it's natural environment like that before.  We also spotted some small pods of dusky dolphins, which is very unusual for this time of year, so we were very lucky!  The circling from the plane made me feel very queasy and poor Liz was even sick!

Back in the town, Liz and I went for a walk along the shore to the peninsula and found an amazing open-air, seafood barbeque by the beach, selling very cheap, fresh seafood.  I had some garlic scallops and tried one of Liz's muscles - yum!  We walked back as a hail storm ensued and spotted two seals on the rocks on the way - we had them completely to ourselves - so unusual to see for us, yet so normal in NZ!  Spent the evening watching the Matrix in the common room with some guys travelling in a car around the island - it was good to get a mix of sexes in the group.
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