Kaikoura - Whale Watching

Had about a four hour drive to Kaikoura from Christchurch, again without heat!! We stopped off at another seal colony on the way and saw a seal with one eyeball hanging out of its socket, poor thing! Then it was off to the boats to see some rather large mammals! We were only on the boat about 20mins when we got our first sitting of air being forced through a blow-hole. It was very exciting, so we made our way across for a closer look. You can only see about 2/3 of the whale on the surface and you really don't get an idea of their size until they start to move and it takes a few seconds for the tail to even start coming out of the water.

The whales we saw were giant sperm whales. They were called sperm whales because they contain a thick oil inside their heads which the whalers thought looked like sperm! We saw 5 in total, which was pretty lucky. The trip was very informative of all types of whales and their statistics. For example, did you know that Killer Whales are actually dolphins, not whales? The Blue whale has to be the most fascinating of all. It is the largest animal on the planet, weighing roughly the same as 9 737 jets and measuring the same length as 3 in a row. It's heart is so large that you could park a car in it and a human could crawl through it's ateries!Phenominal!!

We also saw a pod of Hector dolpins on the way back to the dock. These are the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world and can only be found around the shores of NZ. It was a very educational day all round!