In search of the big one

Posted by rachp on February 9, 2007

We have been so incredibly lucky with the creatures we have seen on this trip. Pink dolphins in the Amazon. Orca off Vancouver Island. Sloths. Hummingbirds. Penguins. Pelicans. Marine iguanas, hammerhead sharks, turtles, giant tortoises in Galapagos, countless seals and sea lions, monkeys, caiman, sea otters … the list goes on and on. We never set out for this to be a wildlife odyssey, but we have found how much Joe and I (not to mention the kids!) have loved the experience of seeing these animals in their natural environment. Maybe safaris aint such a bad idea …

Joe commented that a lot of these animals aren’t rare in the places they live, they just only live in one or two places, and those happen to be incredibly far from the UK! So, the small dusky dolphin for example, you will only find around south America and NZ. The even smaller and rarer Hector’s dolphin is only found in New Zealand. But when you’re in these places, there can be thousands of em (well, not the Hectors, which you see in groups of 4 or so).

But the great whales … now, those really are rare.

75% of the world’s whale population has been wiped out by man. Of the remaining 25%, over 80% only live in and around the Antarctic Southern Ocean, so it’s not just a case of turning up with a boat and seeing one.

But there’s one place in New Zealand where you can, and it’s Kaikoura. This little village sits on a peninsula where the sea bed is quite unusual: it drops startlingly from shallow warm Pacific waters to a canyon, up to 1.6km deep. Cold currents bring literally tons of nutrients, krill and fish, and that brings the whales. Blue, southern right, pilot and sperm whales, all right there, with dolphins and orca to boot.

We had left ourselves several days for Kaikoura, as we knew the weather conditions had to be right to have any chance of getting a boat out. They rely heavily on aircraft spotting the whales, and we read that queue after queue of people can be left disappointed, day after day. However once again, we came up trumps on day one. We have learnt from Franz Josef that when someone tells you to go today because the weather is closing in, and there’s a space, you have just got to jump. And there were, so we did. There were warnings of sea sickness however, with a 2 metre waves and 25 knot winds. But, you don’t get this chance very often, so those of a sicky persuasion (ie moi) bolted down sea legs and got acupressure bands, then hurried to make our 4pm sailing.

The skies were ominous, and the Southern Alps almost invisible, and the rain started to fall. But as Joe says, its no fun if its too easy. If you’re going to see whales, you kind of do want to see them in rough grey seas and skies.

Nothing in the world can prepare you for the sight of a sperm whale surfacing, blowing, and diving. We saw two that afternoon, each on the surface for up to 10 minutes. Even Jenna was moved to a “wow!” before she fell asleep, surprise, surprise! We watched Noodle the sperm whale as he got rid of all the CO2 and did his ablutions (impossible at depth as you can’t perform under pressure, boom boom), then made his long dive with that unmistakeable, iconic fluke wave. 16 metres of whale, right off the side of the boat, with a fabulous giant wandering albatross gliding silently above him. The second whale was even bigger, at 19 metres, and the whale spotting and chasing by the crew was fantastically expert. Rowan and I were very lucky indeed, as the captain let us listen to Noodle clicking away with his hydrophone when he was trying to pinpoint his exact location. The second whale was some way off when he surfaced, but the crew swung the boat around and we frantically sat down as we sped off across the waves. I do have to mention the motion! Joe took a video of the back of the boat in which you can see the pitch and roll, and it was extreme. Going head on into the swell in a little cat at 35 knots was bearable with gritted teeth, but when the waves started hitting you side on, it was like the worst kind of rollercoaster. I have to say though, I did NOT throw up, unlike one poor Japanese woman who was wretchedly ill, and whose kids did not move from their seats through the whole thing, clutching sick bags! What a shame, especially as it is their nation that is still whaling despite all international agreements, and the more ambassadors we have in Japan who have seen the mighty creatures and know why the whaling must stop, the better.

But every nauseous moment was worth it for those whales. Oh my, it was. Nothing I write will ever capture what it felt like, but I was fighting back tears at the first glimpse of a whale.

Then, as an incredible bonus, we came across a pod of dusky dolphins on the way back into shore. These are much littler and rarer than the bottlenose or common dolphins, with bands of grey/blue and white down their sides, and ever so playful. I will leave you to watch the videos to get an idea of how much we loved these guys! Listen out especially for Rhys, who most certainly has NOT changed his career ambition, to be an underwater photographer.