Day 53 - Monday 26 February 2024

At the risk of repetition and becoming a tad boring, today has been an excellent day. 

Awake before the 06:00 alarm, I was ready well before my planned early departure, so I popped out to the front of the hotel to take a look at the sunrise over the Pacific ocean. Yesterday it was overcast when I arrived in Kaikoura, and I knew that there was an impressive mountain range just inshore from the coast, but the cloud obscured the majesty of the view. Today was forecast to be more sunny, and before the sun rose already the view was better. More of the mountain range was visible with a pink sky behind, and gaps in the cloud gave hints of what a scene this could be.

I tore myself away from the scenery at 07:00 to make the short drive to the Whale Watch Kaikoura base for my 07:15 check in. Whale Watch are based in an old railway station that they have termed the 'whaleway station', which is a play on words I appreciated. All checked in, I had a chance to explore the surroundings and admire the views of the mountains before boarding a bus for the 10 minute transfer to the marina.

All aboard the boat for the whale watching; a motor catamaran. We were all seated inside the cabin before departure, and then sailed out about 20 minutes from shore before stopping to have a look at what was about. No scrum this time; we had to stay seated in the cabin until we arrived where the whales hopefully were. As we raced out to sea, we were accompanied by a pod of dolphins for a short while.

Kaikoura has some unusual underwater topography; just offshore is the edge of the continental shelf, and a massive canyon where a warm current from the north and a cold current from the south meet and cause an upwelling of nutrients that attract all sorts of wildlife. This canyon dives to 2000 metres deep just a couple of kilometers offshore.

The boat has a kind of passive sonar system where they can listen for the clicks of the whale's echo location, and identify the direction they come from. On the first stop it was reported that the skipper could hear clicks which meant a whale was nearby. We moved to get a bit closer, and stopped again .... the clicks were louder meaning we were closer. We were told that when the whale stopped feeding and made for the surface that the clicks stopped.

We were told to keep out eyes peeled as the clicking had stopped; I scanned the sea reminding myself that 'Thar she blows' probably isn't the thing to shout these days. Someone spotted the spout of spray as the whale surfaced and exhaled, so the again we moved to get closer. As we approached we could see the intermittent spouts of spray get closer as the whale breathed.

We had been told that when a whale surfaced after a dive it tended to spend about 15 minutes on the surface; when it dives it shuts off all of it's non vital organs to conserve oxygen, so the only chance it gets to digest it's food is when it surfaces.

We came close enough to identify that we had a Sperm whale, and spent 10 minutes with one of the largest animals on the planet before it dived, leaving us with the classic view of it's tail before it disappeared into the deep.

We then spotted a pod of  Pilot whales, so positioned ourselves to enjoy them. It was quite a large pod who stayed with us until it was time to make our way back to shore. 

This morning had been absolutely fantastic, but due to the early start I found myself back at the hotel at 10:45, so it was time for a cup of tea or two before this afternoon's activities.

Yesterday afternoon I had a brief explore of the Kaikoura Peninsula, and now was time to go back and wander the trails around the peninsula. There was a circular route that went out along the clifftops, and returned along a shoreline footpath, so this felt like a good use of the afternoon. I started with a wander out to the rocks by the ocean to get some footage of the now clearer coastal mountain range.

Then I took a steep path up from the car park to the clifftop with fantastic views of the southern Pacific Ocean. I followed the path from headland to headland until I found the path down to the foreshore. I continued about 20 minutes beyond this until I had a fantastic view of the coast away to the south, then returned to take the steps down to the shore.

The downhill put pressure on my calf, and I began to think that I'd had enough, but it was another 45 minutes back to the car; the water left in the car was hot by the time I reached it, but that was better than no liquid. Back towards the hotel, and another couple of viewpoints that I couldn't resist; I accidentally disturbed a lounging seal I'd not spotted, but managed to get the video shot I was after.

Back to the hotel, and I was starting to feel like I'd had nothing to eat today apart from a muesli bar at 06:30, so I headed into town for dinner ..... I found a shank of lamb with all the trimmings which was fabulous before making my way back to the hotel and catching up with the blog ... which is where you find me now.

I cannot get over how beautiful this place is; a bay with a royal blue sea with the mountains across the bay, stretching away to the north and seeming to come right down to the waterfront. I drove down there between the mountains and sea yesterday, and there is just room for the road and railway between the cliffs and the surf.

Tomorrow I'm back on the move again to Christchurch, and I have no idea what that holds for me, so perhaps it's time to do a bit of planning. Either that or just see what tomorrow brings!