Just offshore of Kaikoura there is a submarine canyon cutting down through the continental shelf.  A southerly current hits the shelf here and you get upwelling in the canyon.  Hence lots of marine wildlife.  So we hit the boat trip in search of sperm whales. Here’s Paul eagerly awaiting a sighting. 

And me

This gentlemen was listening with hydrophone for a sperm whale, or any sort of whale!  80% refund if you don’t sight a whale.  Guess what?  80% refund.  Do you know where sperm whales get their name from?  When whalers first caught one and smashed head in a white liquid oozed out which smelt a bit like raw milk (for those few of you who knows what raw milk actually smells like).  They thought it was sperm, hence sperm whales.  The white liquid turned out to be the world’s best lubricant and is called spermaceti which is the family name for this group of animals.  Did you know about 2000 gallons of the stuff can come from one sperm whales head.

Did learn about ambergris though.  Sperm whales eat a lot of squid, and squid have what is called a beak in their mouths.  Literally is a very sharp beak which chops their (the squid) food up once captured something.  Squid have to chop their food up small because the food passed through a tube in their brain.  If the food was too big it would burst their brains.  Anyway, sperm whales don’t chew their food but swallow the squid whole.  The whales have teeth but only in the lower jaw.  They fit tightly into sockets in their upper jaws as they dive.  Back to the squid, the whale digests all of the squid except for the beaks. Considering they eat thousands of squid a day there is a big build-up of beaks.  They kind of start to get digested and go a bit gooey.  This is ambergris.  The whale poops out the beaks every now and again.  It’s about as valuable, ounce for ounce, as diamonds.  The squid, being mostly water, is also the source of the freshwater for the whale. 

A lone albatross.

We whiled away the afternoon mooching around Kaikoura.  Dilapidated buildings down by the old quay.

A 180 shot of part of the bay and moody weather.

Paul caught this shag sunny itself, well drying its wings.

Kelp holdfast and nicely ruffled rock formation.

This is Fyffe House.  It sits on top of whale bones and is all that remains of the Waiopuka Whaling Station.

An example of a Maori totem (pou).  People have lived here since the first Maori arrived in NZ, anywhere between 800-900 years ago.  The burial of a chief was found near here so this site is now a scared place.  Buried with the chief was a huge moa egg and greenstone (jade) treasures.  At the bottom of the pou is a southern right whale – the local tribe are descended from someone who supposedly arrived on the back of a whale.  Next is a moa egg and above that a stylised human form representing the person who was buried here.  Someone looks happy.

Bit of tree on the seashore. Drove further around the coast – lots of tunnels and small bays.  This misty picture.

A great collection of caravans in a small park right on the water’s edge.  You cannot believe people holiday in these – but they do.  Actually some people live in them.

The dunnie.