Kaikoura Whale watching Sat 21st Nov

Today, for me, was going to be about whale watching. It is something I have dreamed of doing all my life and today I was going fulfil my ambition. We set off early from Christchurch to avoid the city traffic and were soon out in the countryside.

We had some more strong crosswinds but nothing like yesterday. The ride was only going to take a couple of hours and cover about 200k. As we approached our destination Baz had pulled us over to tell us about this section of the road. It dropped down to the sea with a mountainside backdrop and wound it’s way along the coast weaving through tunnels, where we had to blast the horns and rev the bikes like the children we are, before pulling into our Hotel “Fairway Apartments” very nice indeed. Brand new, set on a golf course and just a few minutes ride from town.

Baz dropped John, Arl and myself off at the Whale watch place. Paul and Arlene had done this before so opted out. The sea had a good swell and was rolling the boat around but not enough to make us uncomfortable. We were soon into our first whale; it was on the surface, blowing air and water high from its blowhole, digesting food before it’s next dive. This one went down again before we got a good look but it was not too long before another surfaced. This time we got right alongside the Whale and had about 15minutes watching it before it Fluked it’s huge tail and dived beneath the ocean. John managed to get a couple of great shots of the Whales tale as it went down; brilliant!

We moved on, scanning the sea for activity, suddenly Dusky Dolphins, a whole pod of them, surrounded us; they were the stars of the show and spent about 10 minutes with us. They darted alongside the boat leaping from the water showing off, as Dolphins love to do. They were beautiful creatures and to see them like this in the wild was very special.
So that’s another ambition ticked off my bucket list and I must say it lived up to my expectation. We are going into the local town tonight for dinner and a few beers, it’s been a very good day!