We stayed at a hotel come campsite last night. Although we have use of a kitchen and showers, it is probably the worst place we have stayed at in New Zealand so far as it is a bit run down, not that this makes it bad compared to a lot of the places we have stayed at before we came to NZ. The ground is bumpy and sloped so is not very good for camping on and Mary hates it, so we decide to move to the Alpine Pacific Holiday Park. This is a bit further out of town, but the facilities are top notch, with a large modern and clean kitchen and a swimming pool and Jacuzzi outside.
There’s a full boat of tourists for my whale watching trip. The whales come here because there is a canyon in the bay meaning the whales can descend up to 2.5km below the surface. The captain of boat has an underwater stethoscope to pick up whale song, though the various whale watching boats keep in contact with eachother if any of them spot a whale. Also, a helicopter hovering over a particular spot is also a give-away. The crew know all the whales in the bay by name. The one we find is a sperm whale of about 16m long, though from the boat you can only see half of it when it surfaces. It does this for about 20 minutes at a time before dropping into the depths to feed with a swish of its tail and then returning to the surface after another 25 minutes or so. The viewing would have been better in a helicopter as I am sure you can see more of the whale. Obviously, it is also a far more expensive option though. I would have thought the whale feels a bit hassled too, though I guess they must be used to it.
We also come across some dolphins in the bay, including a few hector dolphins, which are only found around New Zealand and are now endangered with about 27,000 left. At about 1.4m in length, they are some of the smallest dolphins on earth, but their appearance, with a pale mixture of greys with black fins, is one of neat elegance.
After the whale watching, I catch up with Caz and Mary, who have been out to watch sheep sheering at a farm. We drive just out of town to a car park by some cliffs and a rocky shore where seals and sea birds congregate. One seal lays oblivious on the rocks just by the edge of the car park, while people queue up to stand near it and have their picture taken.
I spend the evening sipping wine out of a box while resting in the Jacuzzi.
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| leaping dolphins |
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| the Hector Dolphin |
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