Whale Watching!

The whale getting ready to head down for some more food and flee the many tour boats!
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We arrived with enough time left in the day to set up a whale watching tour for the next morning - 7:45 AM to be exact - ouch! I was really hoping to see dolphins as well but hey, I was just glad that we saw two whales! We also saw a royal albatross, which was cool, it's a huge bird! Overall the whole watching the whale from the boat thing isn't that exciting to be honest. You can only see a  portion of the whale, the part above the water, and the rest is not viewable. I would have rather gone swimming with the dolphins but both Linda and I agreed that we will definitely add this to our itinerary elsewhere or come back on our way to drop the car off. Listen to me! I sound so negative about this! It really was exciting to see such a huge mammal up close, but I am also aware of the fact that you can be in a plane and see the entire whale from the air when they surface, and I think that this would be a better experience if you are looking for whales.

Bye bye whale
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After our early morning whale watch we had time in the afternoon to take a walk around the peninsula. The walk was worth it only after the parking lot, the rest of the walk was on the road mostly and it wasn't that memorable. We passed a seal colony but I didn't see any - a sad trend that would continue for the rest of my time in the south island with respect to seeing wildlife. Kaikoura is very small and I was happy to hit the hay and get ready to hit the road for Nelson in the morning!