Day 23 - A Whale of a Time

​This morning’s activity was whale-watching! We were warned that the swell was bad so it would be a bit rocky (there was a chance it would not even go ahead), but we all decided that it was worth it anyway. 

We weren’t long on the boat before we had our first cool wildlife sighting - great seabirds including albatross(es?). Did you know that they can have a wing-span of up to four metres? I liked the albatross.


Better was to come though, as soon after the albatross, we came across a pod of dolphins. There were literally tens, if not hundreds, of them, many of them coming and playing up close to the boat. It was pretty magical. For those of you on insta, I’ll post a few videos at some point (including of a dolphin doing a backflip!), but hopefully the photos give a flavour of just how cool it was.


We were not able to go far away from land because of the conditions, meaning that we were soon losing hope of seeing a whale. It was nearly time for us to head for home when we got lucky though - a humpback whale nearby! We spent a lot of time then with this amazing whale (who had a strange obsession with a log in the water), and at one point he even came really close to the boat. I didn’t do so well with the photos here, but one of my group got a great video. 


Soon we did have to head back for home. Conditions were very choppy by this point, and it became a bit messy. There was a poor crew member whose job it seemed to be to collect up all the used barf bags. There were quite a few, and I obviously did not want to be left out.

We were back in Kaikoura at lunch time, but whilst some of the others headed off for a seafood lunch, I decided to stay in the centre of the town and have a wander, a geocache, and a more straight-forward bite to eat!

This afternoon we drove down to Christchurch. There was a bit of downtime and then we got to meet the four new members of our group - Dana, (from Vancouver) and three Aussies.

We had a meal together at the nearby food market before a quick tour of the city. A lot of the city was destroyed by the earthquake in 2011, so it is fascinating to see the rebuilding. Amongst the sites we saw was the ‘Cardboard Cathedral’, a temporary cathedral built after the quake, the main cathedral that is due to be finished in 2027, and the new sports stadium, which opens early next year. 


I am still feeling a bit like I am at sea, so think a gentle rest of the evening is in store for me. Tomorrow should be a pretty special day for scenery as we move on south, so I want to be fighting fit for that. 

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