On day 4 of our grand adventures with Scotty, he took us to Kaikoura where we boarded a boat to go whale watching. This area is known for this activity, so we were very excited to go! And the weather was perfect too!We’re about to board and start this adventure!This high tech monitor shows our boat without the water, so we can see the terrain of the bottom and see what our depth is.Sorry this is a bit blurry, but its showing what whales we might see.The captain suspects there’s whale activity nearby so she’s scanning with some kind of sonar device to determine what direction to head.She’s done with that, now she’ll move the boat towards it.While searching, we got to see an Albatross! According to our commentator they are rarely seen! Another screen shot of our boat, showing a depth of 745 meters or 2444 feet.Here’s a closer shot of the Albatross. An Albatross’s wingspan can be 6.5′ to 11,5′ while a seagull will be about 3.5′.Thar she blows! In short order, we spotted a whale, and not just any whale! it was a Sperm Whale! According to our guide, who’s been researching whales for 15 years, this is very rare! This whale can stay submerged for hours and only surfaces for about a half hour, we were very lucky to witness this occasion!That protrusion you see sticking out of the water is not a dorsal fin, it’s just where the backbone drops down towards its tail fin. These whales are the largest whales that have teeth and can be 52 to 62 feet long for males and 35 to 40 feet for females!Another interesting fact she told us is that the blowhole on sperm whales isn’t centered, it’s slightly to the left.What a special day: to see both an Albatross and a Sperm whale on the same trip!I wasn’t able to get it, but luckily Joni got this parting shot as the whale dove back down!Here’s a clearer representation of this massive creature. According to our guide they were hunted extensively years ago because of the abundance of oil in their head, up to 500 gallons!That sighting was only about 2 hours in on what was supposed to be a 4 hour trip, but there was a medical emergency onboard, so we had to head back in early! What an incredible trip! It was unfortunately cut short but the good news was they refunded our money 100%! Fantastic adventure and FREE! Hopefully the poor sole who had the medical emergency was okay in the end.They added an observation deck on top of this water tank, pretty cool!One last view of the bay then back home for the day!
The end of our adventure for day 4, coming up, Day 5……..
We've been full time RVers since 2015 and have been fortunate enough to have seen all 50 states (we flew to Hawaii and alaska) and stayed in each at least one week! It's been an awesome adventure but we've decided to park our fifth wheel in Yuma Arizona, mostly because its warm year round!
By staying put in one place we can now do other travel both in the USA and abroad.
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Casa de Ziegler II 