New Zealand, Part 6: Birds & Seals & Whales
Day 9: Lake Tekapo to Kaikoura
Our longest driving day of the trip took us back to Christchurch and then North along the coast to an area with high whale activity. Look at the map above and see if you notice anything about the ocean floor near our destination.
Kaikoura
After dinner we were driving back to the motel and Molly shouted “Stop the car! Penguins!” We were NOT expecting to see penguins on this trip so I immediately jumped out of the car with my camera and started trotting towards the beach, until I heard Molly behind me with the binoculars say “…wait. No.”
To be fair, from a moving car these Pied Shags did look like penguins. The juvenile Southern black-backed Gulls were just a bonus.
Kaikoura Recreation Reserve
After dinner I went to this area near our motel that was supposed to have New Zealand fur seals. It’s a rocky peninsula that was filled with other tourists, who were mostly swarmed around a couple of seals that thankfully seemed unperturbed by the attention. I wandered down the coast to see if there were more seals and less people. At first I was rewarded with these oystercatchers…
…but then…yeah, I found the fur seals.
Day 10: Kaikuro to Christchurch
Whale Watching
The next morning was our scheduled whale-watching tour. When we were traveling around the US in our bus, we always thought about taking a tour, but we never wanted to spend the money. Since we (currently) have income, a tour in New Zealand was a no-brainer.
The tour service was great, with a big stable boat and a great guide. This area of New Zealand coast has a huge underwater canyon just offshore, which the sperm whales like for hunting. We saw two whales, it was a great experience but not the most photogenic. Still, I got some images that I like, and I got to see an albatross.
After the tour we headed back towards Christchurch and guess what? We found more seals!
This is the last photo from the South island.
