Kaikoura

Seal near Kaikoura
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We left Blenheim this morning and headed south towards Kaikoura, a small town set in the lee of the Kaikoura Peninsula.

On the way we passed the South Island's largest seal colony with dozens of seals sunbathing on the rocks, not more than 20 metres away. We managed to get some great pictures. The coastline after this seal spot is dotted with craggy rocks making it a perfect habitat for crayfish, which are sold at good prices from roadside shacks - too expensive for us though (NZD 27/GBP 9/Eur 13) ....

Pup seal
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In Kaikoura we planned to watch the Sperm Whales, but unfortunately they cancelled the trip due to rough seas. So we booked for the 7.15am the next day. The rest of the day we spent eating fish and chips, enjoying the sun and planning the rest of our week.

The next day the weather did not look much better, with mist coming from the mountains behind Kaikoura and out of over the ocean. The whale trip would go ahead although we were warned for rough seas and sea sickness ;-)

They took us to the other side of the Peninsula, to South Bay, where we boarded an 18 mtr steel cat, with special 'silent' engines. By then the weather looked even worse and we feared we would not see much out there.

Another two
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But soon after we departed did we spot a sperm whale (called sperm whale as some whale hunters thought the 2.5 tonnes of oil in their forehead was sperm...). We spent around 5 minutes with the whale before it dived for the deep water (appr. 1200 mtrs). It was amazing to see its tail, and that is about as much as you get to see of these mammals as only 10% of their body is above the water. Some more interesting facts:

Sperm whales can dive up to 3100 meters deep; the record time for a whale holding its breath is 2 hours and 17 minutes; the whale's heart is the size of a VW Beetle; the sperm whale can weight up to 50 tonnes; its teeth weight 1 kilo and measure 1 foot in lenght; the female sperm whale brain is the largest in the animal planet (guess who wrote this...).

Whale close-up
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After about 40 mins we spotted a second whale (or it may have been the same one, as they tend to stay under water for appr. 40 mins). By then, the weather had improved considerably and this made it a lot more exciting. This whale came up really close to the boat (even too close to get its whole tail in the picture).

This was all we saw, but we did see some Dusky dolphins towards the end of the sailing. There were lots of them swimming alongside the boat, showing their acrobatic skills.

Preparing to dive
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It was definitely worth the NZD 130, although we did think it was quite commercialised.

That afternoon we drove towards Hanmer Springs, 150 kms west from Kaikoura.