Catch up

Been a while since my last blog post, sorry. Had a few days in a row where I didn't get out on the boat because of weather or scheduling. Also tried and failed to get on a Whale Watch trip on the 13th, they were fully booked in the morning then the wind picked up in the afternoon and they cancelled some trips. These are the days of cetacean research that can get quite frustrating and require some patience.

Had a good trip out on the boat on the 14th. We tracked the easily recognisable Tiaki (has a very prominent dorsal fin) for a few dives and observed some very loud surface clikcing with easily audible echoes from the canyon walls. 15th no boat again, rained all day, but back out on the 16th and a good trip on the 17th which included a few dusky dolphins and a very fleeting glimpse of one or two beaked whales. They are incredibly shy animals so impossible to get any where near them with the boat.

On the 18th, after a quick job 'interview' at a local bakery, I managed to get a seat on Wawahia, on of the Whale Watch boats and spotted Tiaki, becoming a regular sighting at the moment. Afterwards at the volunteer house I databased the backlog of data collected on the Whale Watch trips over the past few weeks.

Since the 19th we have had beautiful sunshine, getting pretty hot at times. On the 20th, after being offered a weekend job at the bakery I went out on the boat. We had to go quite far offshore to find them and they seemed to be shallow diving as most submerged without showing their tail flukes. In the evening Dusky Lodge was fully booked so there was little point in me sitting on reception. I was allowed the evening off and went to the small local cinema to see The Lovely Bones, which I really enjoyed.

The beach at meatworks

Had an early morning on the boat on the 21st, which was unfortunately cut a little short when a big fog bank started rolling in. In the afternoon Elena, one of the volunteers who left on the 22nd, organised a bit of a picnic/BBQ on the beach at a local surf spot and I enjoyed the sunshine and took some pictures.

Surfers at meatworks

Yesterday we had more great weather so I went out to the end of the peninsula with a few people. We wanted to snorkel with the seals but the swell was up a bit and apparently the viz wasn't too good so we just walked out onto the rocks, explored the rock pools and collected a few paua shells.

More whales!

Have had a couple more days of good weather. Had a beautiful day on the boat on the 5th, tracked a whale for four surfacings including two paired with another animal. We then found a sleepy whale which stayed at the surface for ~40mins, fluked up then breached four times followed by what must have been around 30 lob tails.

The following day was also sunny but we didn't have a skipper for the boat so I went to South Bay for a snorkel with a couple of friends. There was loads of life to see, lots of kelp and algae with small fish amongst it.

The research project has been allowed to have one free seat on a Whale Watch boat each day, so Sunday I went to try and get on a trip. As we don't pay we can only get a seat at the last minute if the trip isn't full, or someone hasn't checked in. I managed to get on the boat Tohora at about 1pm and although the sea was pretty choppy we managed to see four whales. These trips are a good opportunity to collect additional data and photo-ID for the project so it was a good trip. We came back to South Bay via Barney's Rock where there were lots of fur seals, including some pups who appeared to still be learning to swim.

Seals at Barney's Rock

Couldn't get out on the boat yesterday as it had to go for a 200hr engine check but got out today and tracked a couple of whales quite far offshore, including one that had a large scar across the right side of his head possibly from a ship strike of some sort.

Cetacean Soup!

Weather has been pretty good for the last few days so have managed to get out on the boat a couple of times and enjoy Kaikoura. Was dropped in South Bay with some friends from Dusky Lodge the other day and we walked back to Kaikoura around the peninsula, enjoying the views and the sunshine.

Had some really good days on the boat too, lots of sperm whales around which is good although sometimes making it tricky to track the same one for consecutive dives. We’ve seen some interesting behaviour too, such as two whales surfacing side by side, a surfacing tail first and today two closely surfacing whales clicking at each other head to head underwater. Also got a glimpse of more orca, saw some tall dorsal fins from a distance so almost definitely males. Whilst returning to South Bay today we encountered a group of dusky dolphins seeming mostly to be mother and calf pairs, including some very small, very cute, young ones!

Dusky dolphins