Day 338: Whale Watching!
Our second attempt at whale watching was a huge success.
Yesterday’s rough seas forced the safely-conscious folks at Whale Watching Kaikoura to limit kids under 8. So we rescheduled for the 8am boat this morning.
We woke to a gorgeous, calm morning, grabbed our breakfast boxes from the lodge and headed into town.
From the HQ building we were bussed to the doc and boarded yet another katamaran-style power boat. Even on a “calm” morning the waves were pretty big as we headed out to sea. The South Pacific is no joke.
There was already a “brother’” boat from the same operators out at sea and they had spotted a whale, so we joined the same general area. The crew used a device that they put in the water to hear the whales and had a sense that a sperm whale was nearby.
Holy Moly!
Yes, it was exciting but that’s actually the name of the sperm whale we saw. Seriously — he’s a resident of these parts during the this time of year and he has a little hole in his tale so they named him Holy Moly.
He was hanging out a few miles from shore, catching some oxygen before another deep dive to load up on the one ton (!) of food he’ll consume on an average day.
After hanging out with Holy Moly we headed towards shore and found a pod of Dusky Dolphins. Duskies are the most playful, active dolphins and this pod of 150+ was ready to party. It was like they all wanted to show off for us. We caught one doing about 10 jumps in a row, putting several feet between him and the water on each leap. Then a mommy and baby came zooming by.
We fell in love with the Milford Sound dolphins who played in the boat’s wake and we were similarly obsessed with this pod. After seeing these guys jump for joy in the endless waters of the South Pacific, I’m not sure I’ll ever want to go to an aquarium again.
We caught a couple fur seals on a rock not far from shore and were very satisfied with the whale-dolphin-seal trifecta. And then unexpectedly we came across a juvenile humpback whale, hanging out near the dolphins and seals not far from shore. New Zealand delivers another awesome excursion.
We were back at HQ by 11am or so and headed into the town center of Kaikoura for a coffee. This guy’s dad was working at the coffee shop.
Crayfish is apparently the Kaikoura delicacy — but it’s so expensive and hard to find that it’s served at only three restaurants in town. One is the Strawberry Tree pub. Jim and the kids and I grabbed a table while Margaret did some Christmas shopping for the kids at Paper Plus a few doors down. The crayfish was really good — very much like a lobster without the huge claws.
We’d been promising a playground for two days so after lunch we hit this beachside spot. Jim took some pictures (including the one of Willa on the monkey bars), Margaret got horizontal and I sat on a swing and read Harry Potter (yup, I decided to dive in so I can nerd out with Willa).
Back at the Hapuku Lodge we had some quiet time with Margaret and I splitting child oversight duties. I took the kids to the lounge where I played two games of Yahtzee — one against James and one against WIlla. They are much more engaged when it’s a two person game. When one wasn’t playing they read their kindle. Shocking development of the day wasn’t the whales or dolphins, but it was James and I getting identical scores on both the top and bottom of the Yahtzee card. Probability of this happening is infinitesimal.
We had another great dinner. The food here is really, really good. The kids went to play on “BeePaw’s Stairs” after dessert. We retired to our treehouse as the sun set on an outstanding day in Kaikoura.
