Whale Watching

On Sunday we were up early again, as we had to check out of the motel, get ourselves breakfasted and over to the Whale Watch centre an hour earlier than yesterday. This was achieved with the minimum of fuss and in fact we had plenty of time to spare. We confirmed that the trip was running and were then given a short safety briefing before being bussed around to the marina to board our vessel. On the ride out our guide gave us some information about what we were likely to see, and whilst he was talking we saw a small pod of dusky dolphins leaping out of the water. Later we found a larger pod, and the captain stopped the boat so that we could get some pictures:

After about 10 minutes, we moved on, as the captain had information about where a whale was, and when it was likely to surface. The main attraction is sperm whales, some of which live off the coast of New Zealand. They’re not migratory, and you’re pretty well guaranteed a sighting of one as the captain and crew can locate them by sound, and know roughly how long they stay down for before resurfacing. The whales we were looking for were all males, as the smaller females stay in more tropical seas nearer the equator.

Sure enough, a whale duly surfaced. The crew were able to identify it by various markings on its dorsal fin and flukes as Tutu, who’s been living in these waters for around 15 years.

Unfortunately, the movement of the boat was by this time causing me major problems, so I wasn’t able to capture any pictures of the final dive when the whale shows its flukes; nor, indeed, any of the even larger pod of dusky dolphins we saw on the way back, many of which were leaping clear of the water and doing all kinds of acrobatics. Nicola took these:

When we arrived back on dry land, I handed over driving duties to Nicola. I had intended for us to lunch at Nin’s Bin, a  famous crayfish stop, but was still feeling queasy so Nicola and Julian dined on the remains of yesterday’s lunch whilst I had a bit of water. We then  drove on north via Lake Grasmere near Seddon, which was very windy indeed. We didn’t stay long! We completed the final leg into Blenheim, and searched for somewhere to get a cup of tea. Eventually (most of the cafes were closed on a Sunday afternoon) we ended up in the Corner Stone pub, where we spent a restful afternoon drinking tea and cake and watching tennis and cricket – the Black Caps taking on India in their first ODI of the series.

Eventually we drove off to Blenheim airport to take our Sounds Air flight back to Wellington. The wind in Wellington had picked up again and we had a slightly bumpy approach into the landing, which didn’t do my recovering stomach much good. Fortunately we only had to take a taxi home and we were back in good time.

Kaikoura

We bunked off work early to get home and to the airport for a 6:30pm flight on Sounds Air over to Blenheim, then collected our hire car and drove the 128km down to Kaikoura. The first part of this drive is fairly average, but when we reached the coast there were spectacular views out over the sea. We’ve just had a bit of a blow here, so there were some big breakers rolling in…with a scattering of surfers in amongst them on some of the beaches.

We found the motel with no problems and met up with Julian, who’d taken the scenic (i.e. slower) route via the Interislander ferry and bus to get here. He’d set off at 9:00am and arrived mid-afternoon, so was able to check in to the hotel for us and explore the environs. This doesn’t take long as Kaikoura isn’t a big place.

When we arrived we were pretty famished, so unpacked quickly and headed into the CBD. The first pub that we came to had closed its kitchen (it was, after all, past 9 o’clock!), but we walked a little further down and found a pizza place called Passione – a bit better than Pizza Hut, I hasten to add – and they were happy to serve us with pizza, pasta, beer and wine. We then headed back to watch England play Australia in an ODI – at one point it looked like England might actually win a cricket match in Australia, but the Aussies had a different idea about that and they managed to complete the run chase with three balls and one wicket to spare.

 Next day we were up with the lark to go into town and get ourselves a good breakfast, as we were booked on the 10:30 whale watch departure. We trundled along to the Kaikoura Whale Watch centre, based at the Whaleway Station on Whaleway Road (yes, really!) only to be informed that the sea was too rough, with 5m swells, and that the tours this morning were cancelled. We were offered a refund or rebooking, so decided to rebook for the next day, Sunday, at 9:30.

This left us at a bit of a loose end for the rest of the day, so we decided to drive up the coast and walk around the peninsula. There is a car park at the beginning of the north end of the walkway, so we parked there. There is a seal colony here, and we spotted several lounging about on the rocks. We then went up a steep path to reach the top of the cliffs, and look around:

We walked along the cliff tops, seeing various wildlife including the ubiquitous red-billed seagulls, and some wax-eyes and a yellowhammer:

From the cliff tops we could see people walking down along the shoreline, and decided that we would see if we could do that from the southern end of the walkway after lunch.

We again parked at the southern end of the walkway and took the track along the coast. Fairly soon it started going uphill to the top of the cliffs, so we abandoned the beaten track and took to the shoreline to explore. The rock formations here are weathered limestone and form some spectacular arrangements as they have been bent out of shape and eroded. The birdlife seems unfazed by the surrounding geography.

In the evening we went out for dinner at The Green Dolphin restaurant, where we had fish and lamb. I was going to order the crayfish, the local speciality – Kaikoura means food/eat (kai) crayfish (koura) – but decided I’d get that tomorrow, as we would be heading past some famous eateries on the way back to Bleinheim.

Technical Support

Nicola's sister, Sacha is running in the London Marathon this year. She has started a blog to record her training and related matters, and asked me how to provide a link to her justgiving site for donations. I tested it out on my web site and have left it there, should anyone care to add to her donations. She's running for the Pancreatic Cancer UK charity.

Stewart Island

Guard Pacific's triple star 

It was the day after Boxing Day in Dunedin, and it was raining. We set off early, as we had to get ourselves down to Bluff, south of Invercargill, in time to catch a ferry to Stewart Island at 11:00. Stewart Island is the third, and smallest, of New Zealand's three main islands (the "triple star" of the national anthem). It has one town of 420 people, Oban. Most of the island is made up of the Rakiura National Park, which is popular with trampers.

The crossing was a bit choppy as there was an unseasonal easterly wind blowing through the Foveaux Strait. We saw several albatross on the way as well as various petrels and shearwaters. The ferry crossing takes about an hour, and I was feeling a bit queasy by the time we made it into Halfmoon Bay. I soon recovered though, and we popped into New Zealand's most southerly pub, the South Sea Hotel, for a bite of lunch.

After that we went on a tour of the island by minibus, which we'd booked earlier. As it turned out, we were the only people to have booked this, so we had a personal guided tour from Kylie, a resident of the island. She gave us a lot of information, some of which was not standard text-book stuff - like how to age a rimu without drilling into it (arms are involved); and some insights into water management (make do with what falls out of the sky, because there is no other source), and the economics of island life.

After another stomach-churning voyage back to Bluff, we made it to Invercargill in late afternoon, in warm, glorious sunshine! You know, that stuff that summers are supposed to contain! In typical fashion, tomorrow will be warm and glorious, but we're flying back up to the rainy North Island for more, er, rain. But not before we drive the scenic route back to Dunedin in hopefully good weather.

Otago Peninsula

Albatross!

Boxing day was...you guessed it, wet and rainy. First stop was a whistlestop tour of the Otago Museum (which is different to the Otago Settlers Museum), which contains scale models of many of the ships which were an important part of the development of the city of Dunedin, as well as the skeleton of a not-quite-full-grown fin whale.

Then we drove out to the Otago Peninsular once again, this time to visit the Royal Albatross Centre. We'd booked a tour at 12:00, which consisted of a bit of talk from the guide to begin with, answering such important questions as "are the albatrosses royal, or is the centre royal?" to which the answer is "the albatrosses, duh!" The centre is there because Southern Royal Albatrosses (see?) have their only mainland nesting colony there. We then watched a short film about albatrosses and other animals before trooping up to the viewing centre. The area where the albatrosses nest is fenced off from the public, and from ground predators. It's currently the nesting season, so one of the pair sits on the nest whilst the other goes off to sea to feed...for up to 10 days at a time. When he or she comes back, they change position, and the starving one disappears off for an extended squid binge.

We were fortunate to also see two albatrosses circling, either attempting to land to swap over, or, more likely, younger birds showing off to try to attract a mate.

After a quick lunch at the centre's cafe, we then drove down to Weller's Rock to take a marine tour with Monarch on the MV Monarch. We had barely left the mooring when we saw a little blue penguin, New Zealand's, and indeed the world's, smallest penguin:

We then headed round the rocks to see New Zealand fur seals lounging on the rocks, a white-fronted tern, and loads of albatrosses of various kinds (there are 11 different species which hunt around here, but only the Southern royal albatrosses breed here).

We also saw spoonbills, godwits, stilts and oystercatchers but at distances too great to photograph successfully. We didn't see any whales or dolphins, but these are less common round here.

Larnach Castle

Christmas day dawned wet and cloudy. After breakfast we drove out to Otago Peninsula, to investigate the wildlife and go to New Zealand's only castle, Larnach Castle. The wildlife was staying resolutely away, so we resolved to go on a boat tour tomorrow instead, and headed to the castle. The rain was lessening by then, which was helpful.

Larnach Castle was built by William Larnach between 1871 and 1876. After much changing of hands in the 20th century, and having fallen into disrepair, it was bought by the current owners in 1967. It has been restored to its former glory by purchasing appropriate, and in some cases the original, furniture, for the public rooms.

We toured the castle from the bottom up, including the turret at the top, where you can see out to the Otago peninsula and beyond. Attached to the castle at the side is a ballroom built as an addition to the castle by William Larnach as a gift for his daughter's 21st birthday. Unfortunately we hadn't brought our dancing shoes, so were unable to take a turn around the dance floor. This was probably just as well, as most of it was taken up by tables for the cafe.

Dunedin

Think I'm going south for the winter

We set off from Wellington airport for for the southern sun in Dunedin. Wellington airport have recently added to their Gollum sculpture with two giant eagles in the departure lounge:

When we arrived in Dunedin it was chilly and windy. We'd had a bit of a mishap on the car hire front, so spent the next half hour finding a new car, before setting off into the unknown of Dunedin, navigating by nothing more than a vague idea of where we were going, and street signs. Amazingly, we found our destination with very little trouble, settled ourselves in and went out for dinner at our pre-booked choice of restaurant, No. 7 Balmac.

After consulting the map provided at Reception, we decided to walk to the restaurant. Unfortunately, the map seriously foreshortened distances outside the central area, so we ended up walking for about half an hour before we reached it. When we got there, however, all was well, and we had a good dinner there before ordering a taxi to take us home.

The next morning dawned wet and miserable, as predicted by the weather forecasters. The whole of Christmas is being dominated by a low from across the Tasman, and it doesn't look like anywhere is going to enjoy good weather for the next few days. Undeterred, we nipped out for breakfast at the Everyday Gourmet, before heading into the centre of town to the i-site, and there booked ourselves onto the Taieri Gorge railway for the afternoon excursion. We then had a few hours to kill before leaving at 2:30, so we headed into the Otago Settler's Museum, which tells the history of the area. Originally a whaling and sealing town, known derogatorily as Mud-edin, it was transformed by the Central Otago gold rush of 1861, when it became New Zealand's largest city (it's now 5th largest, having recently been overtaken by Hamilton). Amongst many exhibits of New Zealand life, it included a roomful of pictures of old, dead people:

After a spot of lunch at Velvet Burger, we headed to Dunedin station to get on the train. Dunedin station is well-known (in New Zealand) for its architecture.

We boarded the Taieri Gorge train, and headed off uphill through the suburbs of Dunedin before reaching the part of the railway which is privately-owned, which goes up from Wingatui to Pukerangi; stopping along the way to allow us to take pictures of the picturesqueness of the Taieri Gorge. The railway goes over some spectacular viaducts:

Along the way we were provided with commentary about what we were seeing, and general hints and tips like "don't lean outside the viewing platforms when going through tunnels, as the walls are only a couple of inches wider than the trains".

The views on the way are more interesting than what's at the end of the line, so we took some more pictures on the way back down.

It was all very spectacular and full of geology and stuff. You can see more of this on Facebook when I get back to Wellington.

We got back at around 6:30, and then went out to Carey's Bay, to the Carey's Bay Historic Hotel for dinner. This has a reputation as being a great place for seafood, so we ordered...seafood. The view was less than spectacular, as it consisted of the container port opposite - this is strangely absent from their website. The food was good, though. We had a seafood platter, poisson cru, teriyaki gurnard and Thai red curry fish.

On the way back, the skies opened again, and there was a terrific downpour...although the sun was also shining, and a rainbow showing, whilst there was also a rumble or two of thunder. 

Tomorrow's forecast is for more rain.