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netGallery > Jon and Sarah > World_Tour_2006 > New Zealand > Kaikoura and Christchurch

Kaikoura and Christchurch

New Zealand

April 2007

KAIKOURA AND CHRISTCHURCH

So here it is…. Our final update in New Zealand……

Our next destination was slightly further north and off the route back to Christchurch but we wanted to go Whale watching and this was said to be the place. Kaikoura, which means a meal of crayfish, used to be a whaling base and you could say that it still is, but nowadays people come to see them rather than catch them.

There are over 79 species of whale and dolphin in the world today and about 34 of these have been sighted in New Zealand, half of which were near Kaikoura. There is a deep sea trench just two kilometres off the coast so you don’t have to go far to access a wide variety of mammals. This makes it one of the best places in the world to go whale spotting.

We had been whale spotting once before on a very cold cloudy day off the shores of Boston USA. It was a disappointing day as we literally only saw a few distant glimpses of a black hump and spray of water, so we were expecting the same here. How wrong could we be?

This was a superb experience and provided by a boat tour company who obviously knew exactly what they were doing. The boat was very big, modern and equipped with the all essential underwater sound detection system (sonar) that can listen in on the whales to find them.

We were lucky enough to get up close and personal with a couple of gigantic sperm whales. When you are staring at the water bobbing up and down and then all of a sudden one of these babies resurfaces it really makes you jump. It’s so unexpected. Once up they need to restock on oxygen for about five to ten minutes before diving again. During this time they are spouting out lots of water and air and taking a rest. Then over the speaker the tour guide tells you to get your camera ready for the big dive and right on time the tale goes up in the air and gracefully slips down in to the murky depths, providing a spectacular photo opportunity. Check them out!

We watched three or four of these amazing dives in the space of one hour and it made our day! These mammals are actually called sperm whales because when captured many years ago some people cut them open and on the top of the head they have a huge sack full of slippery creamy oil, that these guys mistook for sperm, hence the name. But it’s wrong. Oh well its stuck now.

On the way back to shore we spotted some cheeky pods of dolphins performing acrobatics in front of our vessel and large albatross flew overhead too. You gotta love the dolphins. Even if it’s just for the fact that they sometimes mate for fun, not just for reproductive purposes. Almost human!

On our last day with the van Sarah knocked up some yummy pancakes for breakfast before we drove south to Christchurch. As usual we dropped it off with only about ten minutes to spare before they closed. We were sad to be leaving the van as we’d had a lot of fun, and loved the freedom it gave us. For the next two nights we were back in hostels and wheel-less.

Christchurch, known as the Garden City, is the south islands largest and New Zealand’s second largest city. That said, it only has a population of around 300,000 so in UK terms it’s a mere rural village. In fact over the past two weeks it had become very apparent that New Zealand is so very empty of people. Most are huddled in to the handful of cities and in between, you get the odd row of houses, a few farmers and of course bundles of sheep. If you don’t live in Christchurch or Auckland, your life must be so very dull. No decent pubs, bars, night clubs, cinemas… no nothing. Give me London any day!

Christchurch does have a fantastic cathedral in the town square and some beautiful landscaped gardens and of course a Starbucks. So it’s not totally lacking. But the two days we were there I worked and Sarah did some fruitless window shopping. The day finally came that we were to be whisked off to another far away land in search of all things new.

We enjoyed New Zealand very much, and would highly recommend you come see it one day.

Don’t forget the mint sauce! Bleet!