Kaikoura Whale Watching
Trip Start
Mar 31, 2004
1
11
80
Trip End
Jul 14, 2005
Kaikoura, New Zealand
Sunday, September 5, 2004
It took us about 3 hours to get to Kaikoura and the drive was stunning with more of the mountains becoming clearer after each corner. Our hostel in Kaikoura (the Dusky Lodge) was gorgerous with lots of log fires, massive kitchens with huge oak tables and an outdoor deck looking out toward the mountains.
The weather was absolutely perfect for going out on the boat, clear blue skies and no wind whatsoever (but I still took my ginger tablets just incase!) so we headed down to the ticket office to catch our trip. The 2.5hour trip was fantastic!!! Not entirely sure of what to expect we defintely came away happy. We saw 4 sperm whales. Each one came up for breath for about 7mins before diving again. This is when we got to see them splaying their tails out of the water, it was an amazing sight! It was also incredibly quiet and still out there so you got the chance to appreciate them fully with no other distractions and with the mountains in the backdrop.
With about 30mins to go before the end of the trip Thomas noticed a couple of dolphins about 100 metres away from the boat (He is a fantastic spotter, much better than the people who worked on the boat!!). As our eyes adjusted we realised there was actually hundreds of them, coming at us from every angle (I make it sound like it was Jaws!!). There were about 400 Dusky Dolphins in total, all extremely acrobatic and putting on a great show for us with their jumps, dives and leaps. It was absolutely fantastic!!!! It's definetly one of the highlights of the trip so far and we might try and go back again in the summer depending on what type of whales are passing through then.
