This wasn't actually our ferry (ours was behind this one), but it's the one we took on our return trip.
Harrison checking out the water below.
A beautiful sunset as we entered Marlborough Sound.
We spent the night in the small town of Picton and then took off in the morning on the two hour drive along the East Coast, through beautiful vineyards, to the town of Kaikoura. Kaikoura is considered the whale watching capital of the world (at least, that's what they claim). We spent the afternoon exploring around the coast. Our hope was to hike around the cape and see the fur seal colony, but the boys got sidetracked by all of the tidepools, so we never made it. At least we were able to see a seal swimming around in the water.
A view of the coast with snow-capped mountains in the distance.
The boys enjoying climbing around on the rocks.
Taking a break to soak their feet in the warmer waters of the tidepools (and probably killing off all sorts of endangered sea-life in the process).
On Monday morning we were scheduled to go on the whale watch. We were a bit concerned that we wouldn't be able to go due to the rough water (they sometimes increase the age limit, which is three and above, depending on how choppy the ocean is, and since we were already telling a small white lie by saying that Harrison was three, we were a bit worried). But luckily, we were all able to go.
Brad & the boys sitting in the boat waiting to take off. We were somewhat concerned that being on the rough waters would cause a bout of seasickness, but luckily we were spared. Not so for the two ladies in front of us, I won't go into details, but let's just say it wasn't pretty!
Jonathan and Harrison checking out the sperm whale (at least Jonathan saw it, I don't know whether Harrison did or not, and I'm pretty sure he didn't care one way or the other).
A picture of one of the two sperm whales we saw (unfortunately, I was tending to Harrison, and missed getting a picture of the whales tale as he took off on his deep dive, which was the coolest part). They dive between 500-1000 meters to hunt, but they have been recorded as going as deep as 2500 meters. They hunt the giant squid, sharks, and other large fish. They can grow to be 65 ft. long and weigh between 40-50 tons (that's the males, the females are quite a bit smaller). If you have any other questions regarding the largest toothed whale on earth, just ask Jonathan, he has become quite the whale expert. We also saw a large group of dusky dolphins, albatross and a variety of other sea birds, and there was supposedly a young humpback whale in the area, but we ran out of time and never got to see him.
We had a good time in Kaikoura, especially Jonathan who couldn't stop talking about the whales. Our next stop was Hanmer Springs...stay tuned for more!
1 comment:
Sounds like Jonathan and Connor would have a lot in common. Connor is a shark, whale and other sea life "expert".
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