Today we head down the east coast from Blenheim to Kaikoura to go on one of the world famous whale watching trips.
On the road down we stop off at Ohau Point seal colony and watch hundreds of NZ fur seals sunning themselves on the rocks right in front of us.
We can't stop however as we have important business to attend to on our way to Kaikoura.
As many of you know Mrs M and myself are partial to the odd bit of lobster now and again, and Kaikoura is famous for crayfish (big crayfish like lobster) and apparently the place for crayfish is Nin's Bin.
This is a tin hut on the outskirts of Kaikoura which sells freshly caught and cooked crayfish. We of course stop and buy one for dinner tonight.
We make it to the whale watching centre in plenty time for our booked trip and get bumped onto the trip before. After the safety briefing we head out on the catamaran to go looking for whales. Kaikoura has pretty interesting seabed morphology with a big 1000m deep submarine canyon about 3km off the coast.
This is a feeding ground for lots of marine life including some semi-resident sperm whales.
As we got to the point a whale was spotted on a earlier trip Captain Bob dipped his hydrophone in the water to see what he could hear.
Hearing a whale we then track it for 10 minutes until it goes silent which is a sign of it about to surface. Unfortunately conditions are not great and we don't see it surface. We then wait for around 45 minutes (the average dive time for a sperm whale) and track the echo-location noises. Having been on the water for well over two hours now we are starting to think we might not get a chance to see the whale today, when all of a sudden we see it surface about 200m from the boat.
We then draw up as close as we are allowed to and watch the whale float on the surface digesting its latest meal. After 20 minutes or so the whale starts taking some bigger breaths and is getting ready to dive again for some more food. We watch as he arches his back and then gently slips his tail into the water.
It has been amazing to watch this massive marine mammal so close and well worth the hours of tracking it up and down the coast.
Mr & Mrs M
On the road down we stop off at Ohau Point seal colony and watch hundreds of NZ fur seals sunning themselves on the rocks right in front of us.
We can't stop however as we have important business to attend to on our way to Kaikoura.
As many of you know Mrs M and myself are partial to the odd bit of lobster now and again, and Kaikoura is famous for crayfish (big crayfish like lobster) and apparently the place for crayfish is Nin's Bin.
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| Great seafood |
We make it to the whale watching centre in plenty time for our booked trip and get bumped onto the trip before. After the safety briefing we head out on the catamaran to go looking for whales. Kaikoura has pretty interesting seabed morphology with a big 1000m deep submarine canyon about 3km off the coast.
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| Kaikoura Canyon bathymetry - not one I made at work ! |
As we got to the point a whale was spotted on a earlier trip Captain Bob dipped his hydrophone in the water to see what he could hear.
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| Put it in the water Bob |
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| Tiaki - male semi-resident sperm whale |
It has been amazing to watch this massive marine mammal so close and well worth the hours of tracking it up and down the coast.
Mr & Mrs M
Experience of a lifetime to see that whale !
ReplyDeleteI tried to resist saying you must be having a 'Whale of a time', but couldn't !
Another ace video.