Day 10 & 11 - Whale Watching in Kaikoura

Leaving the resort town of Hanmer Springs we drove a shortish distance, about just under 2h, to Kaikoura, an old whaling town. We have two nights here and a whale watching trip booked. The drive here was again very hilly and bendy, but the weather held on and we had sunshine all the way.

Arriving in Kaikoura, this place has a main strip with restaurants, cafes and tourist shops and we found an increased number of tourists, especially backpackers, roaming the street. Definitely a popular tourist destination. We had to drive around a bit and check out the area before we were able to check in to our motel. We drove as far as we could to the tip of the town and found a nice plateau leading into the ocean. There were fur seals lying about 20m from the car park and you could wander onto the rocks right up to the egde of the ocean.

A local's catch of the day.

The beach behind our motel:

Lunch was at a local cafe that is apparently a popular breakfast spot for the locals, we had the chowder and a beef & bacon burger.

One of the expected highlights of the trip was the whale watching excursion, an we were not disappointed. The most abundant whale species around here are the sperm whales, but only males as the waters are too cold for the smaller, less blubbery females. There is a huge underwater canyon here and the whales dive town into it to feed. The area we went to was over 1km deep and the whales typically stay down there for almost an hour before coming up to breathe for around 10 minutes. So the boats need to time it right, otherwise they miss the whales. Typically you see an average of 1-2 whales per trip. Today we saw two, though we arrived at the second one just as he was preparing to dive again, so those who were late to deck missed the dive.

When they are on the surface they basically just float and breathe, getting rid of the carbon dioxide in their body and replenishing it with oxygen. Then we they are ready to go back down they do a couple of stretches, then arch their backs and dive head down, tail up. This is of course the money shot for photographers, and can really only be topped by a breaching shot. But sperm whales don't usually do this, the humpbacks are more known for jumping out of the water like this.

I got some nice shots of the tails, below are some of the first whale.

On the way back we came across several pods of dusky dolphins, they had little ones with them and several were having some fun jumping out of the water.

 On the way back the crew guide mentioned Blackfish, the documentary about orcas in captivity, specifically one orca called Tilikum. This lead to a pretty passionate anti-whaling message. Throughout the trip there was information about whales and wildlife, though some people on the boat had to concentrate more on trying not to throw up. Even Simone changed to a disturbing colour but we arrived out at the whale grounds just in time.

Tomorrow it's a roughly 3h drive to Nelson for our last couple of days on the south island.

Day 2 - We're leaving on a ...... jet boat!

After a very satisfying 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep we got up around 7.30am. Checked out of the motel, filled up the car ($2.20 per L) and had a quick brekkie at the local bakery. By just after 8am we were on the road to Queenstown, our destination for the day and home for the next three. It's one of the stops where there is so much to do and see we are staying for more than one night.

Simone was driving for some of the time, until she could feel herself becoming too tired so she handed over to me.

Once again we stopped several times to admire the scenery and take photos, or to check out some places. One of those places was the Wrinkly Rams, where we came just in time to see someone training their one year old Border Collie in herding sheep. Commands were mostly different whistles and for a young dog I think she did quite well :)

I took some video as well.

After Simone bought a few things from the shop we continued on our way. Another ad-hoc stop was the Gibbston Valley Cheesery. Part retail outlet, part cafe, here they tell you how cheese is made and you can buy a variety of their very delicious cheeses (they are a bit pricey though) as well as lots of artisan foods and food related items. On their menu I saw a cheese & chorizo baguette, which I had to taste and thought would be perfect for lunch!

It had two different cheeses, chorizo, baby gerkins and a sweet chutney in it. Yummo! Simone had a few bites too and the local dog also got some bits that fell out. She was very gentle.

Some photos of the drive. Something I didn't take photos of was the salmon farm. They sold fresh salmon for $18.90/kg. I almost turned the car around :)

About 20 minutes away from Queenstown we stopped at the Kawarau Bridge, the home of the Bungy Jump. It was here almost twenty years ago that I made the jump 43m down. We watched a few people go and Simone was in two minds about going but said that there were too many people watching and she wasn't wearing the right clothes blabla, excuses excuses.

Arriving in Queenstown we located our hotel and then drove into town to check things out. On a whim we decided to do a jet boat tour, neither of us had done it before. It was very cool, zipping along the river, swerving in and out and doing 360 degree spins. Thankfully those were announced so you were never taken by surprise.

Simone with wet hair afterwards. It was her choice to sit closest to the water...

We had dinner at the hotel. This time Simone had the lamb shanks and I had the special, which was salmon. Funny thing, we looked at the menu and Simone said "with all this salmon in the river there should be salmon on the menu". Two seconds later the waiter brings the special :)

Food was nice, Simone reckoned the shank I had yesterday was a bit better.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a crappy day weather wise, with thunderstorms a possibility. The activity we booked: half day walk. Great. But I tried contacting them today to confirm and also arrange transport and I still haven't heard anything, so we'll see what happens.