Whale Song

Due to a change of plans following the Nelson Lakes incident, we had the opportunity to return to Kaikoura on the East Coast of the South Island which we had previously visited 3 years ago with Gill and failed to do the famous whale-watching due to storms. Kaikoura is famous for its sealife - lots of whales and dolphins, so we were keen to return. We were in luck with the weather: the 7am trip went ahead as planned despite cancellations the prior day, and aside from several people throwing up from seasickness around us [thank the Lord for Ginger Nuts!] - it was all very successful and we saw 3 sperm whales. The whales go down to the bottom of the Ocean, which by the way is over 1000m deep (over 3000 ft), for anything from 30 mins to one hour for feeding and then return to the surface to breathe for about 5-10 minutes, during which time you get to gawp at them from the boat, before doing a lovely breach before heading back down for more chow time. Quite amazing! Sadly, I was unable to do the dolphin-swimming that I had hoped to do as I got fluey-fevers, so I guess we will just have to return to New Zealand to do that sometime.