Whale (and Dolphin) Watch

I'm in Kaikoura right now, which is on the eastern coast of the South Island, just about 2 hours north of Christchurch. I had an awesome time on my whale watch tour this morning. I've been eager to do this blog all day and share some of my pictures from that. But since the tour started at 6:15 a.m., and I had taken 2 motion sickness tablets (which make me very very sleepy), I thought I ought to take a nap first. Even after sleeping for the past few hours, as I sit here, I can still sort of feel the waves from the ocean, going up and down.

Anyhow, so just minutes after getting out onto the water, the first thing we saw was a few orcas (killer whales!). Now orcas are rare in NZ waters, but these orcas have been hanging out in the area for a few days now, so we were lucky to see them. One of the orcas jumped high out of the water and made a huge splash, just like a dolphin would. In fact, these orcas really just looked like giant dolphins. But they're much more vicious, of course, eating everything and anything. I tried to keep my fingers away from the ledge. :) I didn't get a picture of the orca jumping out of the water, because it all happened so fast and I thought it better to experience them through my own eyes rather than through the lens of my camera. The first picture below is the best picture I got of the orca. The second picture below (WHICH IS NOT MY OWN, but taken from the internet), shows you what the orca looks like.




(Legal disclaimer: Just so I don't get into any legal trouble with Wikipedia, this picture is not mine, and credit belongs to Wikipedia)

We then moved on to look for some sperm whales. It took some time, but eventually we spotted one at the surface. It was HUGE, and we only saw about 1/3 of its body at the surface. The whale was on the surface for a good 5 minutes or so, re-energizing for the long dive down. We saw spurts of water coming out of its blowhole several times. The first 3 pictures below are some good "blowhole" shots. The last picture was taken just as the whale slowly and gracefully dove back down into the water, saying good-bye.









Soon after, we spotted another whale at the surface, and below are some shots I got of our second whale.

At the very end of the tour, we got a huge treat! Dusky dolphins!!! They were so playful. There were heaps of them swimming and jumping around--I mean hundreds! I have never in my life seen so many dolphins altogether. I had a big smile on my face watching them. :) Here we go with the dolphin pictures....