Kaikoura

Whale hello there :)

Kaikoura is the last scenic spot on the Kiwi Experience tour, afterwards the way goes up to Auckland again. 


As the incident in Christchurch happened quite late, my time in Kaikoura was very carefree. After the rush of checking in, I went to the whale watching tour. As I was still petty sick that day and I’m not a good swimmer anyway, I didn’t want to do the dolphin encounter/swimming tour. At the end of the whale watching tour I was extremely exhausted from just watching that I probably would have rather drowned than swimmed in the dolphin encounter. Despite from getting very, very motionsick on the boat and this (not normal for me) was about the second time ever I got motionsick on a boat, it was awesome! We not only saw two sperm whales what the tour is all about, but also a group of Hector’s dolphins (literally one of the cutest animal species ever!!) and various species of birds and a few fur seals doing weird stuff. Hector’s Dolphin is the worlds smallest maritime dolphin with only up to 1.50m long and the rarest dolphin as they are only found on New Zealands coastlines. To Kaikoura itself, it is like the centre of marine life/animals in whole New Zealand. Pretty cool tho. Just a few kilometres away from the landmass, a huuge underwater canyon springs that is about as deep as 1600m, with a massive drop just a kilometre away from the landmass from just 100 to 200 metres to about 1000m depth.



The city of Kaikoura is still very small, yet considerable beautiful. „Graffiti“ artworks can be found on heaps of walls, the whales, dolphins and seals to be seen everywhere.



After my whale watch tour I couldn’t resist buying a shirt, a Hector’s Dolphin pen, a key chain, various postcards and a small ‘real‘ Hector’s Dolphin plush though I already have a Hector’s Dolphin key ring plush. Wish I could have a living Hector's dolphin..



Enjoy the pictures! 
Taking photos with a 20cm lens plus camera and almost 10cm lens hood out of a boat driving 30-40 knots can be quite challenging


 Yoga fur seal
 HB the sperm whale
 ...because he has holes in both flukes xD
 I sadly forgot this guy's name ':(
 He's got this cute swirl in his fluke

 Hector's dolphins :D <3



 Surprise- the wall art here is all about whales and whale watching B)
 Dusky dolphins who I haven't seen yet
 Hector's dolphins <3

Whale, that was a lot of whale and dolphin photos ':D Hope you like them as much as I do! 

Cheers,
Katharina

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