Watching Whales in Kaikoura

Manda writes:

Kaikoura is well known for its abundance in marine life and today we were going to find out whether it lives up to its reputation! In particular, we had joined a whale-spotting tour and were feeling optimistic about seeing some. Waiting to board our catamaran, we could see dolphins swimming close to the shore - surely this must be a good sign!

As we rode the choppy waves (which surprisingly didn't feel rocky in this sturdy vessel), we were kept entertained with hi-tech video presentations describing why Kaikoura is a popular spot for marine life. The reason is down to the currents and the continental shelf formation. From the land, the ocean bed slopes down to around 90m and then plunges to depths greater than 900m. The cold and warm currents collide here and as they bounce off the continental shelf, they create an upwelling current that brings up nutrients from the ocean bed. This in turn makes it an ideal feeding ground for larger marine animals such as whales, dolphins, giant squid etc.

Equipped with radios and a hydrophone (an underwater microphone to pick up the sound of whales), our friendly crew took us out to see some big fish! Where's Dory, the whale-speaking Regal Tang in Finding Nemo, when you need her?!

We spotted two sperm whales, a pod of two hundred dusky dolphins and a couple of Albatrosses thrown in for good measure!

Whales

The whales were spectacular to watch and even from a distance, we could appreciate the sheer size of these mammals. However, what we saw was not a true representation of the actual size of these creatures. Only a small proportion of their bodies protrude above the water and we only saw two thirds of its length (full length of this whale: around 17m) and about a fifth of its depth (full depth: 2m). We watched the whale occasionally force water out of its blow hole for the ten minutes it stayed close to the surface. Once it had stocked up on air, the whale then dived back into the water, bringing up its previously hidden tail while doing so. This might be the only opportunity for us tourists to get the perfect shot of the tail in the air - at least, until the whale resurfaced an hour later. Did we get it? Did we ever!

A sperm whale dives into the depths, raising its tail out of the water as it does so.

Dolphins

The dolphins were a lot of fun to watch too. They always are! We'd already seen some bottlenose dolphins at Paihia (NZ North Island) and in Tangalooma (Australia) previously. On this occasion we saw dusky dolphins and I managed to take a photo of one of them in mid-air. These dolphins have very distinctive markings on their sides, almost as if they are related to the Orca (killer) whales - a flash of white on black down their sides.

A dusky dolphin leaps out of the water in Kaikoura.

Apparently, you can go snorkeling with whales in some parts of Australia. That would be fantastic and a little scary at the same time too, I should imagine! Maybe something to try in the future, but for the moment, I was pleased that we had seen some of these great creatures.

We stayed in Kaikoura for the evening, and just grabbed something from the local supermarket for dinner - a tin of tuna to go with some pasta. And yes, it was dolphin-friendly - just like us!