April 1, Whipped by Whaling

The morning began very early, about 5:30am, as we had to get ready to meet our driver in the hotel lobby at 6:15. We packed and carried with us the box breakfasts that our local travel agency had provided for us, since we would not have time to eat the hotel breakfast. The driver picked us up at 6:15 promptly and proceeded to take us to the Christchurch Railway Station.

At the station, we had to readjust our luggage, each of which was slightly above the 23kg (50 pounds) limit. Then we took our luggage to the platform for the crew to load it onto the train; however, we had to wait a few minutes before being allowed to board. Eventually, we boarded and settled down into very comfortable seats which had a table. The table was convenient for placing books, food, drinks, and other items. And then, we were off to Kaikoura, NZ, for a half-day whale watching tour. (“Kaikoura” is two Maori words put together: “kai” meaning food and “koura” meaning crayfish. Crayfish is their name for what we call the spiny rock lobster.) Along the way to Kaikoura, we had a lovely conversation with the young New Zealand couple and their daughter seated opposite of us: Tony and Maria Groves and 6-yr old Milan. They were also headed to Kaikoura for a weekend getaway, but not to go whale watching.

(Patrise and Doug selfie on the Kiwi Railways train to Kaikoura)

(Our Kaikoura travel companions: Maria, Milan, and Tony Groves.)

After three very pleasant and comfortable hours on the train, we arrived at the Kaikoura train station, which was also the location for the whale watching tour operation. We picked up our tickets, stored our luggage in rail station lockers, then waited about 45 minutes for the tour to begin. When the tour time arrived, two buses took all of the passengers to the dock, where we loaded the whale watching ship. The ship was very comfortable, with plenty of speed, not at all noisy, and big wide windows for seeing everything outside, should one choose not to go outside. (Also handy for rainy weather, when passengers would be more hesitant to stand on the deck in the elements, I imagine.)

The trip was fruitful in that we soon picked up sight of a sperm whale. It was a male, as only the males come this far south, specifically to feed and bulk up for their journey back north in the springtime. The females stay further north in warmer waters, to raise their calves. The ship was captained by a woman and most of the crew were women. That was inspiring, to note that women – most of them young, but all we could tell – were making inroads into jobs traditionally held by only men.

As one crew member explained, the captain would order an underwater microphone to be lowered, when she thought we were in the vicinity of a whale. She uses two traits of sperm whales, to enable her to estimate when and where one is about to surface and to enable us a better opportunity to get good viewing of the creature. The first trait is that the sperm whales use their echolocation when diving and hunting prey. However, when they are about to resurface, they cease to echolocate. Thus, the captain could tell us when the whale was about five minutes from resurfacing. The whale’s second trait that made it easier for us to view it is its behavior at the surface. Since sperm whales dive so deep for food – they can dive deeper and stay under water longer than any other whale species – they must stay on the surface of the water longer, in order to reoxygenate their blood before diving again. The whale watchers call this “logging”. So once our whale surfaced, it stayed on top of the water for about ten minutes: plenty of time for great videos, photos, and of course lots of “oohs” and “aahs”. Although both of us got photos of the sperm whale – he is named “Tiaki” by the watchers – Patrise got the better pictures, including the proverbial tail fluke photo when the creature was beginning its next dive. It was a magnificent sight!

(Tiaki the sperm whale "logging" on the surface. Note the mist of spray on the right indicating his breathing.)

(Tiaki's fluke, waving goodbye, before diving agin to continue hunting and feeding.)

Kaikoura was once one of New Zealand’s premier whaling towns, but eventually the whalers put themselves out of business by killing off all the whales in the region. And so, for decades there was no whaling and the town languished. However, in the 1970’s whales began returning to the area, because its geological features make it a rich source for food for cetaceans of all types. The area now sees sperm whales, southern right whales, blue whales (the largest creature on earth), orcas, and several types of dolphins, especially the dusky dolphin, which we also saw plenty of on our tour. Thank God, the local people and New Zealanders, in general, have come to appreciate the ecotourism benefits of watching and protecting whales, rather than continuing to hunt and kill them.

(Dusky dolphin pod at Kaikoura...probably as many as 40-50 swimming around the boat.)

When our tour was over, we collected our luggage at the station, and there was a driver waiting to take us to our local hotel, the Fyffe Country Lodge. He took us there, and he also waited for us to deposit our things, so that he could take us back to town, to get something to eat for lunch. By now, it was 2pm, and we had not had anything to eat since being on the go early this morning. We decided to try the King Tide café, which had a wonderful seafood chowder (Patrise’s lunch) and huge green lip mussels, a New Zealand specialty (Doug’s lunch). After lunch, our shuttle driver returned to get us and again take us to the Fyffe. We were wiped out by then: the early morning start, the rocking of the boat and excitement of the whale “hunt” and watch had wiped us out. We slept for almost four hours.

When we awakened, we unpacked our clothing for the next day, recharged a few of our electronic items, then called a taxi -- a different one this time, because the two taxi companies operate at different hours, one daytime, the other evening, because there is not enough business to sustain both of them operating all day and all evening. Dave’s taxi took us to dinner at The Pier, where we had a reservation. The Pier was a bit like a Cheers pub in its ambience and décor. There were plenty of locals, as well as tourists. The conversations were lively without being loud, and for our purposes, the food was very good. We ended up having an extended conversation with the three gentlemen sitting at the table next to us – Ray, Mike, and Steve. Ray did most of the talking. He began the conversation by inquiring what part of the U.S. we were from. He had not been to Atlanta, but he has traveled to the U.S. several times and likes it. He comes primarily to attend the international motorcycle rally that is held in Sturgis, South Dakota each year. This small town of roughly 7,000 people will each year attract over 750,000 who come to this 10-14 day gathering each year. When Ray comes to the States for the rally, he plans to come weeks or months in advance and tour around different regions of the country. He shared many fondly-remembered stories about his travels throughout our country.

(The shoreline across the road from our dinner restaurant, The Pier.)

(Doug on the shore across from The Pier)

(The Pier: not much to look at, but the food was great.)

(Our dinner conversation pals: Ray, Mike, and Steve.)

After dinner, we waited outside of the restaurant, enjoying the slight chill of the evening breeze and looking with amazement at the skies. There were so many more stars than we normally can see in Atlanta. You almost forget they are up there. When we returned to the hotel (it’s actually a B&B), we settled in for the evening, while watching the movie “Marley and Me”. I had forgotten what a great, yet ordinary, movie it was: about a husband and wife’s marriage and early child years with a devoted dog, who got into a lot of trouble, but was such an intimate part of the family’s life.

(Patrise awaits our taxi, sitting outside of the restaurant)

(The moon above Kaikoura as seen from The Pier restaurant.)

(Some of the stars seen from the Pier restaurant.)

(Moon and stars)

We called it an evening and a wonderful day, and we got ready for continuing to travel the next day. Fortunately, unbeknownst to us, this was New Zealand’s daylight savings time day. The clocks were rolling back an hour overnight, which would give us a very appreciated and needed extra hour of sleep.

(Kaikoura stars as seen from the Fyffe Country Lodge)