Up again at some ungodly hour in order to have suitcases in the bus by 7.30. We were then taken to the whale watching centre, where we had a safety briefing, then a different bus took us across to the harbour to join the whale watching boat, a big catamaran.
Kaikoura being the whale watching capital of New Zealand, there were 5 of these in total, and we were the second boat out. The ride out took more than 30 minutes, but we were entertained by being shown slides and talked to by one of the crew members, so the time passed quickly. We met quite a lot of dolphins, who played round the vessel, but we didn't linger, because we knew there were sperm whales further out. Sperm whales can be seen off this coast 12 months of the year. We met a wandering albatross too, resting on the waves, but by the time I had the camera out and focused, he had become bored with the paparazzi and flown off.
The first whale we encountered was already on the surface, so the boat proceeded to where it was as quickly as possible, but not quickly enough; he dived just as we approached, so all we got was a view of his last breath and his tail flukes as he dived. Then there was a period of rushing about, then stopping dead to listen with the hydra-phone. Other whales were in the area, deep down in the ocean trench. They stay down for 40 - 60 minutes, then they have to come up to breathe. The boat tries to follow them, and catch them on the surface.
Suddenly, the one we were following surfaced, and the boat was stopped so we could all go out on deck to watch. I climbed to the upper deck. You get a view of the front part of the whale as he breathes, and sometimes you see his head.
You aren't very close, because that would disturb him. And it is a male, the waters here are too cold for the females, which don't have such a thick layer of blubber. The males have been thrown out of the pod by the matriarch when they get too big, and they stay in cold waters feeding and getting bigger until they are ready to go back to warmer waters for mating. After about 10 minutes, he had breathed enough, and he dived. Paul got him starting his dive.
I photographed his tail flukes as he went, but you can probably hardly see them, I needed more zoom.
We returned to Kaikoura, and went looking for a sandwich for lunch, which we ate on the beach. Our mid-day dining rooms just get better and better!
We drove off along the coast, and visited some more fur seals. This time, we were able to get closer, though we had to be careful not to get too close, as these are big bulls. This one was trying hard to be asleep in the shade. One of our group was on the rocks above and intended to jump down, until we warned him off - he didn't know the seal was there!
Some of the bulls got a bit fed up with all the attention.
We set off to drive to Christchurch, using a similar route to that we took in the train, but in the opposite direction. We followed the coast for a short while, then drove into the hills. The gorse is still in bloom
Later, we came down towards the Canterbury Plains; the land is very green and fertile.
As the bus drove to our hotel, we noticed quite a bit of earthquake damage, especially several ruined churches. They had been built of stone, and were not sufficiently flexible when the quakes struck.
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