South Island is where it's at for nature lovers! We've been here a week and checked must sees off our nature list! Kaikoura is a special place with ocean on one side and mountains on the other. As we mentioned in our last post our fist day here we chilled with wild fur seals and that was just the start. Our 3rd day we went whale watching with Whale Watch Kaikoura. The boat they use is a badass catamaran designed for whale watching and speed. Once we got out to sea it didn't take long for word to come in that a sperm whale had just come up for air 15 minutes away. Unfortunately by the time we arrived he had dove back down so we waited. They know it's male because only males live in cold water, females prefer warm waters, who can blame them! Sperm Whales are the the largest toothed mammal in the world and also the record holders for holding their breath with the longest known being 3 hours! The area where we waited for him to resurface was home to an underwater gorge over 2000 meters deep where this particular sperm whale spends most of his time and thankfully tends to stay down 45- 60 minutes at a time. Using a hydrophone to listen for the whales clicking sound the boat slowly repositioned us so we'd be nearby when it came up for air. While we waited we were treated to seeing several royal albatross birds flying around. These birds are absolutely massive! There were also several other small sea birds playing around the boat. After 45 minutes he finally came up! It wasn't a dramatic sighting but it was awesome to be so close to such a huge animal. He spent the next 10 minutes re-oxygenating giving us a lot of time to view him. The sperm whale has small lungs for his body so it stores oxygen in it's blood and muscles to allow such extreme dive times. We got a few great photos of him on the surface and just as he was about to dive under and I had my camera lined up perfectly and clicked the button. Instead of getting that perfect whale tale shot I got 'battery exhausted'. Absolutely choked. Thankfully Chis had the gopro running so later we'll get a video put together. Once the whale was down we set out in search of other marine life and came across some dusky dolphins who seemed fairly uninterested in the boat but did play around us for a bit until our time was up and we headed back to the marina. We had originally planned to continue on that afternoon further south but decided instead to spend on more day in Kaikoura at a freedom site not far from town. There were no seals at this spot but great ocean views. The next morning we had breakfast with dusky dolphins hunting outfront our campervan and massive swarms of birds diving in and out of the shallows by the hundreds! What a great way to wake up! As much as we loved Kaikoura it was time to continue the journey south so we headed to Christchurch. The drive was quite nice though windy at times! We decided as we approached the city we had no interest in seeing another city and bypassed Christchurch completely finding a small freedom sight just outside of the city. The next morning we continued to Oamaru, a large town on the ocean with fantastic character but more importantly to us they had a colony of rare Yellow Eyed Penguins! The yellow eyed penguin (hoiho is the Maori name) spends all day at sea and then returns to their nest in the evening which are hidden in bushes along the beach. There is a reserve set up by the town where you can access the beach anytime before 3pm where fur seals like the hang out. After 3pm the beach is off limits because the penguins are very sensitive and if they even sense a person nearby the wont come out of the water. This makes the extremely difficult to view so what they've done is set up a free viewing platform. When we arrived around 3pm we only waited 5 minutes before the first penguin emerged from the ocean, extremely cautiously, before it took off for the bushes as fast as it's little legs would take it. We decided to wait around and try and see a few more. Unfortunately after 1.5 hours nothing. Dusk is the best time to view the birds emerging but we were getting tired, hungry and a thunder storm was making it's way towards us so decided one penguin would have to do for today. Today we're on our way to Dunedin and the Otago peninsula where more penguins and seals await! Along the way we decided to stop at the Moeraki Boulders. On the beach there are a dozen or so spherical boulders with bizarre looking veins running through them. It is also a great spot to stop for tea, ocean views and free wifi at the cafe next to the beach ; ).
We've got 2 weeks left in NZ, our camper van is organized the way we like it, routines in place, driving down pact and lots left to see! The next 2 weeks should be the best yet!
1 Comment
Johanne Beasley
10/13/2016 11:04:56 am
SPERM WHALES...how incredibly exciting. I think Kaikoura is the only place in the world with a residential sperm whale population in the world.
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