The Whale Way Station

Today we headed North from Christchurch up to a small coastal town called Kaikoura. After much umming and arrhing we had decided to visit the town in order to do the infamous whale watching tour from the Town’s South Bay. It was fairly pricey, but as it is not something we have had to opportunity to do before, and are unlikely to again for some time, we decided to take the plunge and dip our hands into our increasingly deep pockets.

People come from all over to do the tours - which are available by boat, plane and helicopter. We chose the cheapest boat option which unlike the other two was advertised as being over 2.5 hours long, rather than 20-30 minutes. We hoped that it would be a good boat ride even if no whales were seen. Due to the popularity of the tours, we had to wait to the last tour of the day, at 3:30pm, before we headed down to the ‘Whale Way Station’ (no joke) to catch the bus for the short journey to the docks.

The boat was pretty fast and I had to really concentrate in the first few minutes to stop myself feeling both scared and queasy (what is it about me being scared recently?). However, soon I got used to the sideways motion of the boat and the up-and-down motion as we hit the waves, and I could peel my eyes ready for possible sightings. The boat people already had a pretty good idea where there was a resident sperm whale - as all the whale tours seem to work together so the plane and helicopter help guide the boat to the right place and vice versa. They use environmentally friendly methods of tracking the whales - eyes and a long tube thing which you dip in the water to hear the whale noises. Therefore no sonar and the like which is good. The boat’s skipper spied the whale first and it was quite amusing as we ‘chased’ the whale until we got close, but whilst obviously maintaining a safe distance. There were a few elbows flying when we got the go ahead to leave our seats and go out onto deck, but our cunning plan to sit near the door proved a winner.

This whale was called Manu and he returns to the waters around Kaikoura every year. Manu means bird and apparently his tail is the shape of a bird - hmmm. Chris managed to a few good snaps, although the best is possibly this one, just as Manu was diving down for another 45min meal. Everyone on the boat was mesmerised.



As Manu was unlikely to surface for some time, we then headed off in search of other creatures. It wasn’t so long before I heard one of the staff muttering something about ‘it being under the boat’. My first reaction was to be scared (surprise surprise) and I had visions from ‘jaws’ but instead my horror turned into amazement as it turned out to be a right good group of dusky dolphins! They were swimming alongside the boat, popping in and out of the water and then they started to play with the boat - going underneath it, popping out and then back again - even too quick for super-snapper Chris. Dolphins are my new favourite animal!


Dusky Dolphin

It wasn’t too long before we then sped off again for another sighting of Manu - who had run out of oxygen after only about 40mins (no stamina!). He was just chilling out on the surface blowing a bit of air and water and hitting unsuspecting seagulls. Whilst we were there an albatross flew over and we didn’t know which way to look! They are pretty big - I wouldn’t get into an argument with them over my fish and chips if I ever met one!

Finally just as we were heading into shore, we stopped off at Barney’s rock and looked at some big fat seals lolling about, sunbathing. They were pretty smelly but also quite funny with some of the lazy positions they get themselves into.

Big Fat Seals

All in the space of just under 3 hours! I think we both liked the dolphins the most as we saw most of them. Manu was great but we were just able to get so much closer to the dolphins. Definitely worth the money we spent - unforgettable!