February 20, 2019
The itinerary for today was to take a whale watch cruise in the morning and then explore Kaikoura and a few surrounding areas in the afternoon. We woke up to a cloudy day. We were able to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast since our whale watch cruise check in time did not start until 10:00.
We walked over to the I-site where I bought a magnet and asked the lady at the desk about road conditions to Ohau Point, which was a spot 25 km north of Kaikoura that contained a fur seal colony. She said there were a few areas of road construction, but nothing too bad and the drive would take about 25 minutes. She also said that Ohau Point was a much better place to view fur seals than the closer Point Kean since Ohau Point was a breeding colony with lots of pups. Point Kean was the equivalent of a retirement community where the adult seals came in to sleep on the rocks.
We took the 10-minute walk to the Whale Watch Kaikoura building. We were still early so we spent some time walking along the beach. This beach was pure gravel and there was not much interesting to view. We checked in for the boat cruise promptly at 10:00 and were told to wait another half hour before reporting to the safety briefing room at 10:30. I was not thrilled about the long drawn out check in process, and I think it was designed to maximize people’s time to view all of the overpriced souvenirs and buy things.
A passenger train arrived at the train station that was next door to the Whale Watch Kaikoura headquarters. The last car was open deck, and I was able to talk to a few of the passengers while they were waiting to move on. They said they were enjoying the ride, but the train went very slowly. I would think that is good for viewing all of the scenery. We took videos of the train as it left the station.
We were in the briefing room promptly at 10:30. After the safety briefing we boarded a bus that took us to the South Bay where we got on the boat.
The weather for the boat cruise was partly cloudy with light winds. We had been warned that there was a south swell on the water, so there might be potential for getting sea sick. The waves did not bother me or Heinrich, but a few people on the boat did get sick, and I felt sorry for them because they looked utterly miserable.
The boat stopped at an area where we were able to see a few dozen dusky dolphins from the boat deck. We could see their backs arcing in and out of the water as they swam around the boat. Just as we were instructed to go back inside to take our seats for the next part of the trip, the dolphins started jumping and twirling out of the water! I was not able to get any pictures, but it was great seeing them up close.
The boat stopped for our first sighting of a sperm whale. It stayed on the surface of the water for about 10 minutes before diving back down, when we were able to see its beautiful tail. I did manage to capture its tail on video. I had my sunglasses on which made it harder for me to see what I was filming on the cell phone screen. Many times I just pointed the camera and hoped I was capturing something.
The boat moved to another position where we hoped to see a whale, but it did not surface. Later in the tour we got to see one more sperm whale. This one stayed on the surface for about 15 minutes before diving down, and I got better videos since I remembered to remove my sunglasses.
The tour had advertised one or two whale sightings per trip, and we got two so I was happy. Considering the whales are on the surface for only about 10 minutes followed by 45 minutes to an hour when they are down, I thought that the boat crew did a great job locating the whales for us to see.
The return trip to the dock was uneventful. On the bus ride I looked out the window and saw another group of dusky dolphins jumping and twirling offshore! We noted the location, walked back to our car and drove out to the South Bay where we had several minutes of fun watching the jumping dolphins. I was able to get videos of them using the camera zoom.
Afterwards Heinrich drove us north to Ohau Point to see the fur seals. The drive was a bit slow due to the road construction and took about 30 minutes. There were indeed many fur seals and their pups playing in the water and sunning themselves on the rocks, and they were close enough to watch and get good videos.
We drove back to Kaikoura and walked back into town to the Coopers Catch restaurant to order some fish and chips, coleslaw and drinks for dinner. We had planned to eat at the table at the restaurant but did not realize we were getting takeaway food that came in a big paper wrap with no plates. So we walked back to the lodge and ate outside on the picnic table.
After dinner I took a walk along the wharf to a city park and spent time there viewing some whale bone sculptures. Later in the evening there was a full moon, and after it rose above a low cloud bank it made a beautiful reflection in the sea water.
