Another glorious day in NZ. Today was a no travel day -- so I spent the whole day in Kaikoura. Started the day off with a nice walk along the beach. Then off to go Whale Watching -- we were out on the water for about 2 hours -- we saw 3 adolescent male Sperm whales. They didn't really do much while on the surface -- and I did a poor job catching their tail flips as they submerged (totally missed the 1st one). Sperm whales are the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. Average length is 52 ft. And they dive more than 9,000 ft in order to eat -- making it the deepest diving mammal. It also has the largest brain of any mammal. And -- it's clicking vocalization can be up to 230 decibels -- making it the loudest sound produced by an animal. Who knew!
And just in order to clutter your brain with more minutiae --- toothed whales belong to the suborder Odontoceti and the others are baleen whales belonging to the suborder Mysticeti.
On the way back to shore, we encountered two dolphin pods -- 1 pod of Dusky dolphins and 1 pod of Common dolphins (not to be confused with bottlenose dolphins). The Dusky dolphins were very entertaining -- doing flips and twirls (you can see 1 in the distance in one of the photos).
Later on in the day, I drove down the Kaikoura peninsula to check out the seals --- fantastic! -- lots of seals all over the place -- had to actually be careful because they come up on the beach and even onto the grass (and they can move fast on land -- although not very gracefully) -- and signs all over the place to stay at least 10 meters away from them. FYI -- these are New Zealand Fur Seals.
Weather: sunny, 70 - 75F
Miles Walked: 3.9
km Driven: 25.8
Book/s Finished: The Bat, Jo Nesbo; 1st book that I've read by him -- rather good although a bit dark
Pic Notes: 1 - Fyffe House - Kaikoura's oldest surviving building built upon foundations of whale vertabrae; 3 - boat similar to the one I was on - there is only 1 company that runs the whale watches -- so never more than 2 boats out -- very nice
And just in order to clutter your brain with more minutiae --- toothed whales belong to the suborder Odontoceti and the others are baleen whales belonging to the suborder Mysticeti.
On the way back to shore, we encountered two dolphin pods -- 1 pod of Dusky dolphins and 1 pod of Common dolphins (not to be confused with bottlenose dolphins). The Dusky dolphins were very entertaining -- doing flips and twirls (you can see 1 in the distance in one of the photos).
Later on in the day, I drove down the Kaikoura peninsula to check out the seals --- fantastic! -- lots of seals all over the place -- had to actually be careful because they come up on the beach and even onto the grass (and they can move fast on land -- although not very gracefully) -- and signs all over the place to stay at least 10 meters away from them. FYI -- these are New Zealand Fur Seals.
Weather: sunny, 70 - 75F
Miles Walked: 3.9
km Driven: 25.8
Book/s Finished: The Bat, Jo Nesbo; 1st book that I've read by him -- rather good although a bit dark
Pic Notes: 1 - Fyffe House - Kaikoura's oldest surviving building built upon foundations of whale vertabrae; 3 - boat similar to the one I was on - there is only 1 company that runs the whale watches -- so never more than 2 boats out -- very nice
Great pics, Kaikoura was one of my fave bits of NZ. Just such amazing wildlife.
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