Relaxed and rested we make our way to Kaikoura. Today is the day we are going whale watching! Today is also the first day of crappy weather we have experienced so far. Apparently we should consider ourselves lucky as experiencing 7 fantastic days (in a row) of weather in September is rare.
However, these clouds and drizzle will not deter us! We have whales to watch!
This is what we learned whale watching; most likely you’re only going to see about 10% of the whale. I was trying to Jedi mind trick this beast into breaching but alas my Jedi powers must of been weakened by the cloud cover. Listen, 10% of a whale is better than 0% of a whale. I should also note that September is not exactly peak whale watching season.
Our entertainment for the day was a sperm whale name Thaki (probably not nailing that spelling). Thaki is a resident in the waters off of Kaikoura. How do they know which whale this is you might be thinking. Well it seems that the tail of a whale is unique. Kinda like a fingerprint. This knowledge was imparted on us by our tour guide.
It’s a good thing it’s the tail that is unique because this happens to be the piece of the whale one is most likely going to see the most of. Mother nature is a witty one.
So we watch Thaki for about an hour just hoping he would give us a show. Seems he isn’t in an entertaining mood today. Instead we got a few displays of his tail and he descended down into the water. Having never seen any part of a whale before we will take it.
Back to shore we go! Which is good because it is cold and I am ready to get off this boat. On our way back we pass an island where seals make their residence. You can never go wrong with seals. They’re so stinkin’ cute! And I do mean stinkin’ because this island has a distinct seal odor.
It’s been real Kaikoura but we gotta make tracks.
Update: Just a couple of months after our visit to Kaikoura this wonderful town (and several others down the east coast) were rocked by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The very road we traveled down was covered in land slides. We truly hope that all are safe and that the whales who call these waters home are as well.
Safe Travels,
Amber & Julian
