Whale Watching at Kaikoura

By Alistair Ross • Sep 2nd, 2008 • Category: New Zealand Attractions

If you want to do some whale watching in New Zealand Kaikoura, on the east coast of the South Island, is the place to go. You can also swim with dolphins, get up close to fur seals on land as well as swim with them.

Sperm whale diving down

To see the whales you have to go on a Whale Watch Kaikoura boat. They run a very professional operation, but it’s extremely weather-dependent. We waited through 2-1/2 days of rough weather before the boats could go out. The whales are mostly adolescent male Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), which weigh around 40 tonnes and reach 16 metres in length. They dive to depths of around 1,600 metres in the deep-water canyons south of Kaikoura. At those depths they hunt the fabled giant squid, one of which washed up near Wellington in 1887 and was measured at 18.9 metres. The whales feed up on these before they mature at about the age of 25 and head off to join small breeding groups in the warmer waters north of New Zealand. At sea and a respectful distance, it’s difficult to appreciate the scale of these animals until they dive and their tail flukes stick way up out of the water. They stay down for thirty to forty minutes at a time, so in an hour and a half out over the deep water of the Kaikoura Canyon you might see two or three of these massive, inscrutable creatures. Other species of whale migrate seasonally through these waters and there are also Orca and lots of dolphins. While waiting for a whale to re-surface, we were entertained by a couple of pods of dolphins.

Dusky dolphins

Dolphin Encounters run the dolphin swimming and watching tours. Swimming with the dolphins was booked out for weeks, so we went along to watch. The swell was rising and the rough weather meant that the dolphins were in little pods, moving quickly all over the bay. The dolphin swimmers got in and out of the cold water three times without making contact. Some of us dolphin watchers on the bow got a good dousing of spray too (without the protection of wetsuits), but we saw the dolphins jumping and diving around us. The tour was cut short and we got a substantial refund, so it was good value and quite fun in the rough seas.

Dusky dolphin

Though a number of species can be seen in the area, we saw the most common one - the Dusky Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obscurus). They feed out at sea during the night and return to coastal waters during the day in pods of 20 to 50. These pods can sometimes join together until there are hundreds or even thousands of dolphins coursing through the water, exploding out in acrobatic leaps and flips. People who have swum with dolphins report it as a near-spiritual experience of wonder and exhilaration, which would be just as well because it’s pretty damn cold even with a wetsuit.

Fur seal napping

The key to the marine activities available at Kaikoura is the weather. It’s deep water and open sea all the way to Antarctica, so southerly winds and swells can blow straight in. I’d recommend scheduling in a week or so there to be more certain of catching fine weather. You wouldn’t want to be susceptible to seasickness either. We watched one poor woman spend the whale watching trip with her face in a bag looking really distressed (and she’d paid about $100 for the experience). There’s lots to do on land though, and the wildlife is unforgettable. There’s also an interesting cave and a vineyard just south of Kaikoura which are worth visiting. We had crappy weather, but a really enjoyable time.

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