Monday 11 March
At the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre I took in the two major display halls, Knights of the Sky (WW I) and Dangerous Skies (WW II).
Knights of the Sky: British pilot who crash landed into a tree in German territory being given a cigarette by German pilot while soldiers inspect his tree bound plane.
Dangerous Skies: Lockheed Hudson shot down by Japanese over New Guinea Jungle.
Tuesday 12 March
After having a beach walk and leaving the Marfells Beach DoC campsite I peeped over the fence into the Grassmere Saltworks before late lunching at the Kekerengu Café and stopping overnight at their beachside camping area.
Wednesday 13 March
This started as a windy and showery day on the way to Kaikoura, but I managed to get good photos at the five Cultural Art stopover areas on the newly reconstructed coastal road. These off road parking and landscaped areas include sculptures and display boards relating to Maori heritage, local plants, wildlife and landscape. The seal colony at the Ohau stop overlooked the breeding area with hundreds of females and their pups littering the rocky and grassy foreshore with pups playfully tumbling around with each other in mock combat or frolicking in tidal pools.
Grey fur seal.
Pups at play on land.
Pups at play in their “private” swimming area while mums and feeding pups relax on the rocks.
The rain showers eventually cleared by the time I got to the seal colony in Kaikoura, but there were no seals there. Anyway I wanted to climb the hill behind the parking area (the hiking poles were really useful) and walk the clifftop track to the shearwater colony Lexie and I Last visited 20 years ago. It is now surrounded by a predator free fence, and had grown in size remarkably with hundreds of breeding burrows on the hillside.
Shearwater breeding ground.
Thursday 14 March
After a light and early lunch I joined the 100 plus other whale watching folk on the 1:30pm cruise out to the GPS location where the local sperm whale group had been seen that morning by the two earlier cruises. It was around a 30 minute 30 knot (54kph) dash through 2m swells first over the inshore shelf (water depth 40m) then out over the Kaikoura Canyon (850 to 1200m depth) to where the whales feed at depth (they can dive up to 2000m for 40 to 60 minutes in their hunt for squid as well as small deep water fish). When we reached the spot where whales had been last reported, the boat shut down engines and a hydrophone was used to pick up sperm whale clicking sounds. This gave us the general direction and distance to where they were likely to surface. As everyone aboard scanned the sea for tell-tail spouts from breathing blow off, two whale watching light planes and a helicopter began circling low over the water about 500m away and then we spotted a spout. The crew quietly took the vessel to within about 30m of the whale.
We knew it would only be on the surface for around 10 to 15 minutes while it recharged its oxygen levels before deep diving again. The crew knew when it would dive by watching for two deep breaths in a short interval, and they then said it will dive on the count of 6, and sure enough after 6 counts the tail went up as the whale took off vertically for the deep.
We were told it would be 40 to 60 minutes before it came up for air again, so we all began to look for another whale which we found about 20 minutes later. The crew have names for the several whales which frequent the canyon at this time of year, and the two we saw had Maori names which I am unable to recall. They identify them by the tail flukes with their distinguishing chips and gaps.
After the second whale sighting the crew took us on a direct line to the coast to look for seals and dolphins. While miles away from the coast two seals popped their heads out of the water to look as us as we sped by while another was lazily lying on its back on the water surface. As we got closer to the shore we were suddenly surrounded by dozens of Dusky and Hectors dolphins in a mix of small and large groups.
They frolicked around the vessel as we cruised slowly through them, with groups both sides and in front and rear of us. Overall we really got our money’s worth on the trip which lasted from 2pm to 4:30pm on the water. [By the way, if any trip does not find a whale, Whale Watch refunds 80% of the $165 adult ticket price.]
The vessel had 3 large TV screens which were used to provide commentary during the trip, and at other times we could follow the tracking map (shown here) indicating our position, speed and water depth as we travelled.
Friday 15 March (today)
Took a long walk on the foreshore Esplanade through town before a couple of hours in the Museum. Great displays re whaling as well as local history and records of the 14 November 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake (7.8 magnitude). I must say the road and rail restoration following the earthquake has resulted in the best bits of infrastructure I have ever come across in NZ. The new road is excellent, superior to any of the new roads I have been on this past several months.
Saturday 16 March (tomorrow)
Tomorrow I am away to Waipara to freedom camp overnight in the local Domain before the Weka Pass rail trip Sunday morning. Will be out of internet access for 3 days or so until I reach Hanmer Springs.
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