Kaikoura

'Kai' means food in Mouri and 'koura' means crayfish - a name probably given to the place due to its abundance of sea food (sorry - really obvious comment there!). The reason for the abundance is that there is a continental shelf just off the coast - the sea depth drops drammactically from about 100 meters to 1000. This brings an upwelling of plankton etc, which means the food chain is plentiful for sea life.... ooohhh - I'm impressed I remembered something for once!

The upshot of all of this is that Kaikoura is the place to go for whale watching, dolphin swimming, seal swimming and pretty much anything else of that nature. I was very excited and booked in for a whale watch and dolphin swim - the latter of which has always been something high on my priority list. Who wouldn't want to swim with dolphins completely in the wild if given the chance?

I set off for my whale watch the afternoon I arrived. Having not read the guide book properly, I booked into a YHA that was at least a forty minute walk from everywhere else - fine if you want a stroll, but not so good when you're late for everything in the way that I typically am (that's taken years to admit!). I had limited time to reach the setting off port, so decided to hitch.

A note on hitching. It's bloody marvellous that in NZ hitching is considered the norm still. It's safe enough (if you're sensible) and people are more than happy to stop - testament to the helpful attitude of the Kiwis. I love this fact - I'm not sure why, but it fills me with an inner contentment just to know that somewhere in the world, we can still depend on the positives of human nature (hippy thing again maybe?).

I managed to hitch a lift with a Kiwi Experience Bus. Typical. The one tour company I had done my very upmost to avoid at all costs. Nick-named 'the green f**k truck (I hope no children are reading this!) due to its 'party, party, party' reputation and the fact that the average age of its clientel is 21; it was the last 'experience' I was hoping to gain from a trip to NZ. Imagine my utter disgust at discovering that a) their bus was, without a doubt, much nice than ours b) their driver seemed unimaginably more chatty and friendly and c) it had a toilet on board (only that morning I had nearly forced the driver to stop so that I could pee by the road-side). Still, it did the trick and I arrived with plenty of time to spare.

The whale watching centre was very well organised (as it's so popular here). There were flat screened tvs everywhere telling you about the risk of sea-sickness. Luckily, I had had a rare moment of pre-planning clarity, and taken a travel sickness tablet prior to setting off. Others were not so lucky! We set off at an incredible speed (a type of motorised catamaran I think) and literally 'bounced' over the top of rather large swells on the ocean. 'Moderate' sea sickness risk my foot. I swallowed hard and managed to maintain my dignity. Can't say that I didn't worry about the boat turning over or some such distasterous thing. Is it just me who's finding the capacity to worry about such things as I get older, or does everybody get it?

Within ten minutes, we were gazing at a sperm whale. It was incredible. They come up and float on the surface for about ten minutes every 20 minutes or so. Obviously, we didn't get too close and I'm pleased to say the crew gave us great detail on how they avoid distressing the whales or impacting on them in any way. As testament to this, the whales we saw are the same that they have been onserving in the bay for some years. In layman's terms - the whales aren't bothered.

After watching two different whales blowing and floating, then diving (yes, you get to see the classic 'whale tail' shot) we were lucky enough to join a huge pod of dusky dolphins as they bolted across the bay. They go so fast! It was just awe-inspiring to watch them so close to the boat, diving under and jumping out of the water. I tried in vain to get some good pics, but then just had to put my camera away and watch and enjoy the moment.


Another point on Kaikoura. When out to sea you could see the town itself and the hills which had cloud cover at the top ('Land of the long white cloud' is a fitting name for NZ). What takes you slightly by surprise is that everynow and then there is a gap in the clouds some considerable distance up from the hill tops.... there you get a sneaky view of mountain tops covered in snow. Without the cloud, I'm sure the mountains would have been breath-taking. With the clouds, it added an air of mystery.

On my return to Kaikoura, I discovered that my dolphin swim the next day wasn't possible. This determined my next move, as I rearranged all my plans (ferry, bus and accomodation) to move onto Wellington after only one night. Well Kaikoura was nice, but not a lot to do if you weren't heading out to sea and were staying somewhere in the middle of nowhere!