Having a Whale of a time

Monday 26th November

After an enduring 2 hour plus drive from Christchurch we eventually rolled up at the quaint seaside town of Kaikoura to Whale watch. I was a little dubious as I had heard it was very touristy. Quite the opposite. I wish we had stopped in Kaikoura – a lovely little village like place with a scattering of shops and accomodation. KaiKoura is the Mauri name for Crayfish. After a yummy lunch of homemade sardine sandwiches and another cup of tea or two we wandered around the little town until time to check in at the “Whaleway stataion” for our trip to see Whales. The vessel – a 50 seater catermaran was fantastic. A wide screen panasonic TV supported amazing grapics of the journey some 4 miles out to sea along with supportive information on the Whales and other marine life. Our first sighting of a Whale was stunning, these 18ft creatures lay almost still in the water – could be mistaken for a large rock apart from their gentle movements and sprays emerging from the surface. We watched as it gracefully moved ready to go under and flipped its tail in the most elegant way possible. I watched memorised by this amazing creature as it went down to feed. We were lucky enough to see 3 sightings of whales on the trip – all three such a stunning sight. I will never forget the image of the whale tipping its tail as it went under, it was so pefect it was like watching a movie in slow motion. As if seeing the Whales wasn’t enough, we were also treated to views of what seemed like 100s of dolphins playing about as if they were putting on a show for us, and not just for 5 minutes, but for a good 10-15 minutes these dusky dolphins played about showing off their swimming skills and sommersaulting in the air all in their natural environment. What an amazing trip – recommended to do even though it is quite expensive. To finish off a perfect day we ate Hoki and Chips outside – all for the bargain price of about £1.50 each. The journey home was hard work as the sun was beating down into our eyes, making visability of the road unbearable so stopping off for a nice cup of tea was so refreshing – that being the cherry ontop of the cake of today.