Episode 6: Whale watching

The next bit of excitement was whale watching in Kaikoura. Before I complain, let me say first that I thoroughly enjoyed this excursion—both the watching of the whales, and the thrillingly choppy boat ride out to whale territory. However, before they load you onto the boat, they crowd all 100 or so passengers into a little theater and show you a video filled with dolphins doing tricks, 12 varieties of whales, rare birds, and I think I saw a unicorn. It’s not until you’re actually on the boat that they mention that the average number of whales spotted on these trips is two. Also, the whales in season were sperm whales, probably the least acrobatic of the whale family. Still, we saw three whales (above average!), and learned why sperm whales are called sperm whales (their heads have a huge cavity filled with oil, possibly used as a flotation/anti-flotation device as the oil solidifies or melts depending on water temperature, and old-timey whale killer people thought it was sperm).

We saw a whole lot of this...

And not so much of this...

And certainly none of this.