Kaikoura and Whale Watching

Friday 16 July 2010

Well, yesterday was nice, but we had one last trip to make. We got on a bus and headed to Kaikoura. It wasn't a bad trip compared to our extremely long ones recently. We walked to our hostel when Mom realised she left her luggage on the bus. So we quickly went back to the bus and were able to retrieve it. Then we went to the hostel and had to ring the bell. The lady gave us our key and said we could have a free cup of soup from 2-5. So we started going up to our room and realised she gave us the wrong key. I found her and she had our key in her pocket. We went and got organised and left to walk to the whale watching place. Kaikoura is known for whale watching, particular for Sperm Whales.

We were super early when we got there, but we tried to check-in. The lady who was helping us said we really couldn't check in until 1:00. She said a name thinking it was us, but it wasn't. She couldn't find us and looked at my paper and said I reserved it for Saturday. She said it was an easy fix, so she was fixing the information. She was taking a long time and then she figured out what happened. I booked it for the right date, 16 July, but it was on the wrong day, Saturday. On a closer look, the lady realised the problem was, it was booked for Saturday 16 July 2011. Yeah, I was a year early. I don't know how I could have possibly done that, or why they would even have that as an option. Well, she was able to fix it so we could have the next tour.

Since we were still early, we walked along the beach. We were told the conditions may not be good and we may not see whales. I was a little nervous, but prayed a lot. There was a lot of rubbish along the rocky beach. It was quite appalling. We went into town and looked in some of the shops. Then we ate lunch and checked in. As we checked in, we found out that the tour before us saw a couple whales, and now it was nearly perfect conditions for the water.

We watched a film about ocean life. It was quite interesting (obviously, this is a major interest of mine), I was sad when they turned it off. We had a 15 minute coach ride and then got on the boat. We headed out to see. They made us sit down the whole time. It isn't until they stopped the boat that they finally allowed us to stand up and look around.

One time, they saw spray from a whale, but I missed it. We got to see some Albatross. Another time, we were told where a whale was. The people on the boat were actually able to put a microphone underwater to hear activity of the whales. They would then go in that direction to look for the whale(s). I got to see the flukes, but that was it. I have been to whale watching trips before. I got to see Grey Whales (which mostly you only get to see the spray). I have seen Humpback Whales (which are a lot more playful and I saw the entire body as they jump out of the water). Well, Sperm Whales are a little different. Mostly, whales are able to take a couple of breaths as they go up and down. Sperm Whales are the biggest and longest divers. They can dive for up to 60 minutes. So when they breathe, they literally stay above water for several minutes (for every minute they are up will allow them to be under water 6 minutes). So they stay afloat for a long time breathing. Once they are ready to dive, you see part of the back, and then the flukes. So, that is exactly what happened the next two times. We stayed up above, took pictures and watched the whale breathe. Then we see the flukes, take thousands of pictures and watch for another whale. It was so wonderful to watch this. I loved every moment of it.

We then headed back. This time, the ride was a bit different, because it was a longer and faster boat ride. I have never had a problem with sea sickness (thank goodness), but that was not a true story for many people. In fact, the guy next to Mom was breathing quite deeply into his bag. They actually had a lady going back and forth to collect bags of sick. I saw her collect around four bags (if not more). I could actually see the darkened bags, so I could see the volume of sick in the bags. Some were more full than I expected. I loved the boat ride, but I was glad to get away from the sick people.

We then headed back into town. We walked around a while and then headed to our hostel. Our room was absolutely freezing. We had a heater, and I thought I turned it on. No heat was coming out, so I flipped the switch and cold air started rushing out. It wasn't a heater at all! It was an air conditioner (we could have used this in Bulgaria, couldn't we Ann?). We realised the hallway was actually warmer than our room. We left the door open as long as we could to get a little warmer. We put as much stuff (clothes...anything) on our beds to warm us up even a little. It was a very cold evening!