New Zealand-- Kaikoura

New Zealand! December 26 - Jan 09.

We left Singapore on an overnight flight to Christchurch on December 26th, arriving to New Zealand on the morning of the 27th. We picked up our rental van and drove 2.5 hours north to Kaikoura for two nights.

Kaikoura is a small town. Captain Cook sailed by Kaikoura in 1770, and it was colonized by the British in 1842 as a whaling town. It sits right on an area of ocean where there is a deep canyon underwater. This leads to an abundance of sea life and Kaikoura's main draw: the whales. The whales come to here to feed on squid. The giant squid is believed to live in the depths of this underwater canyon. Interesting.

Here is our view from our 2 bedroom apartment at Waves on the Esplanade. We were able to easily walk in to town each night for dinner. It was a great location.

What kinds of whales hang out in Kaikoura? The most likely to spot is the sperm whale, although several other kinds visit Kaikoura as well, including orca which ravage the area with their hunting before heading elsewhere. We took the Whale Watch Kaikoura tour to see what we could find.

The weather was blustery and in the 50's. We bundled up and headed out on a adventure. The sea was fairly choppy and we encountered a decent amount of boat movement. We were lucky that none of us got sea sick.

About 30 minutes later the crew found our whale. We pulled up along side of him and hung out. Ten or fifteen minutes later, we watched him dive. It was special.

When the whale made his exit, we went a little further and found a pod of dusky dolphins. We had never seen so many at once! The crew told us that this pod contains up to 300 dolphins. This breed of dolphin is very playful and many were jumping clear out of the water and doing flips. They were even more fun to watch than the whale!

Later, we drove 5 minutes out of town to the local seal colony. You are able to walk right out on the rocky beach and stand or sit inches away from these large creatures:

This guy was scratching his back. It was so tempting to want to help him, but you don't want to get your hand bit off!:

Windy day:

And that was Kaikoura!

Up next: Leaving Kaikoura for one night in Christchurch.