Sperm Ahoy!

We crossed the Cook strait from the North to the South island without incident and headed down the coast to Kaikoura. It's a great drive through vineyards and rolling hills and then some beautiful coastal scenery with lots of seals lolling on the rocks to observe. Kaikoura is a very small town that is famous for its marine wildlife, the top draw being the Sperm Whale. Amongst the other sea inhabitants that frequent this part of the world are Humpback, Southern Right and Fin Whales. Killer Whales, lots of different Dolphins, all sorts of sharks and loads of birds, the Albatross being the most interesting. That's a picture of a Sperm Whale we came across on the side of a building, its about life size!
The morning after arriving we were booked in for a Whale watching expedition. The weather reports weren't that good (what a surprise) and so we hired some anti-sea sickness bands which you strap on pressure points on both wrists and wouldn't you know it, they worked. We'll definitely have to invest in some of these before doing the return crossing back to the North island, which every person who I've spoken to about it says its a nightmare and maybe we were lucky that it was relatively calm, so I've only got a month to be nervous for then, great! As it turned out, the sea had calmed down loads by the time we set sail and there was only a small half meter swell. We went with Whale Watch Kaikoura as they're the only company around and pretty good they were to, quite a few people on the boat, but mainly there was enough room to have a gander at the whales.
Sperm whales are the world's biggest predator and can grow up to 20 meters in length. Kaikoura is one of the best places to see them as it has a huge undersea trench situated just off the coast and this is where the whales feed. They are deep sea divers and will dive down to depths of 1000 - 2000 meters for up to 2 hours at a time. In Kaikoura they normally dive to 1000 meters for 45 minutes. They go deep to get their favorite food, the Giant Squid. Like a lot of whale watching trips, its basically like watching a floating log that blows off a bit of air every now and then, but at least with Sperm whales, because they dive down to get their food, you get to see their tail as they dive, which is actually very cool. If only you could dive with them...
Why are they called Sperm whales? Well it's a bit mingin, but when whalers first caught a Sperm whale they cut its head open and out poured a sticky, white goo, in fact about two and a half tons of the stuff and being the brainy whalers they were, immediately deduced it must be sperm....from its head? A few years later the real truth became apparent, its actually a type of oily wax, but why does the whale have it? No idea, answers on a postcard please. Anyway the name stuck and it kind of looks like a giant sperm anyway with its weirdly shaped head. On the way back to shore we stopped to watch some Dusky Dolphins frolicking about, leaping high out of the sea and spinning about.
Back on land before we left the next day, we drove along the coast to see the huge colony of Sea lions. They stank, but really nice to watch them chasing each other about and lazing about on the rocks, looking like furry rocks really. You're not supposed to get within 20 meters of them as they can be a bit viscious, but being the kind of crazy take all risks person you know I am, I ventured down onto the beach to get some better snaps. You have to be really careful and inspect each rock carefully in case it really is a seal. I was able to stand on a high rock where I knew they couldn't clamber up (suckers) and photograph away! Hungry from our seal excursion we came across a little place called Nins Bin selling fresh Crayfish, mmmmmm, so tucked into one with just a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt. If you haven't had Crayfish before I highly recommend it, not prawny like you might think, more of a meaty taste, not fishy at all. We also bought some Green Lipped Mussels which are apparently world famous and cost a bomb back home, here they're cheap and gorgeous.

More Whale information here.




Film of the Week: Once Were Warriors







Listening to: The Beatles - Love