Tuesday, 14 March 2017

In the presence of giants

The next morning we rose with the sun...or was that son...either way we awoke to the view of the mountains, a canvas of light and shadow in the morning light. Despite being winter in New Zealand, the air was crisp and slightly warm in the suns rays. Mary-Ellen enjoyed her coffee on the deck in the early glow of morn; Thomas enjoyed his silly father taking pictures of him.


After watching the website to make sure the tours were running that morning, I was dropped off for the first tour while Mary-Ellen took first watch of the little bundle of joy and a little tourist shopping on the main strip of Kaikoura. With the weather feeling like an Autumn day in Maritime Canada, the setting perfect with the roaring sea on one side and the mountains on the other, I set off from the whale watching station on the dark pebble beach to the tour boats.



With huge anxiety, I sat on the edge of my seat as the boat pitched up and down with the waves. Many of the passengers were apparently sick but I didn't notice to much as I scanned the ever moving horizon in search of our target whale species; the sperm whale. Unfortunately I did not see much aside from the occasional shy mollymawk, a species of albatross, which was far off in the distance. This all changed when we arrived at the feeding grounds at the Hikurangi Trench which ends just off the Kaikoura peninsula. The first visitors were the cape petrels which followed the boat around whenever we saw a whale blow.



Unfortunately, for the first three whale blows, the whale had dove before we arrived, giving us no chance to see these fantastic beasts. Instead we were treated to near endless views of blue ocean on one side and the southern alps on the other. This did give us a chance to see a few more birds, including a giant petrel. Not the prettiest birds but they were quite acrobatic in their flights around the boat.



Then, we finally caught up with one of the whales. Unfortunately, our first sighting was still fairly far away and all we were treated too was a quick arch of the tail and a wave goodbye as the flukes descended into the water. These whales can stay down for around 90 minutes so there was no point waiting around for him to surface and we continued searching. The reason these whales are here is to feed. The favourite food of these whales, namely squid, are often found only in deeper water. The close proximity of the trench to the shore creates a unique situation where whales of this species are found within boating distance to the main land. A new species to be added to the list.



We were quite fortunate after this point to encounter another whale very quickly and we raced to it as fast as reasonably possible. The key to spotting sperm whales is to do so when they first surface. Holding your breath and diving into the deep in search of food is tiring and the whales require to stay on the surface and replenish their supply of oxygen. They will float on the surface taking great breaths to expel the built up carbon dioxide and providing tourists such as myself the opportunity to view these fantastic creatures.



It was an amazing experience for myself, to see such an animal in the wild. It seems hard to believe that this "beast" would once have been the target of whalers, hunting them for their blubber, ambergris, and spermaceti oils. These creatures are powerful and it is unsurprising that they would have posed a challenge to whalers. The "Nantucket sleigh ride" was the resulting pull of whaling boats after harpooning whales, which eventually wore the animal out. These sleigh rides were longer and at greater speeds when harpooning sperm whales compared to most other species. It is understandable in the context of their time, why whaling occurred, however it is hard to believe that such a majestic creature could be hunted to the low numbers they occur in today. I chose to shoot with my camera instead.

This whale chose to stay on the surface for probably two minutes before he took a final blow and arched his back. Slowly the caudal peduncle and the tail flukes appeared and then with a wave goodbye to the white limestone cliffs in the background, the leviathan descended back into the depths to feed.





Feeling very lucky to have had this encounter, my bliss was interrupted as we were called inside to hurry off to another sighting. We pulled up to a whale that had surfaced recently and the boat was able to get a lot closer. Every little detail was visible on this one, from the rippling pattern of the skin, to the large boxlike head that is indicative of the species. The most prominent feature from this angle however was the one nostril blowhole which blows to the left side of the whale only. More than fifteen great exhalations sending vapour and splashing water at an unusual angle rather than straight into the air.




And in the calming roll of the waves, we simply floated with this magnificent giant as we enjoyed this scenery and company of this rare creature. But before we knew it, he took a great breath and started arching his back again. We were so close this time that we could see the dropping of water off the tip of the flukes as this whale also slipped into the water and ended our encounter with these whales.




Our cetacean adventure would not end their however, as the boat traveled into the murky waters near the limestone cliffs. Here we were on the lookout for another rare creature; the Hector's dolphin, one of the smallest dolphins in the world. They are only found in New Zealand waters and I was privileged to see a small pod of these creatures appearing like phantoms out of the cloudy waters.




Feeling completely on top of the world after such a fantastic venture, it was now Mary-Ellen's turn. Although she did not get to see the Hector's dolphin, she did get to see several sperm whales as well and they were able to get pretty close to these whales. Fortunately she was able to fully enjoy the experience, unlike many others who were more than a little sea sick in the higher waves of the afternoon.




Mary-Ellen was also fortunate to get a much closer look at the shy mollymawks and managed to snap a photo for me. We shall have to go back again some day to try and see a few more of the bird species that inhabit this wonderful place.


The whole experience was one neither of us will forget, full of truly picturesque moments, some of which we managed to get with the camera. The sunny ocean, a rare creature, and the mountain backdrop, truly a day that will be with us always.




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