Whale Watching in Kaikoura

After all the excitement of Queenstown, I was a bit worried that my trip back up to Auckland with the Kiwi Experience would be boring, especially as the best friends I made all finished their trips in Queenstown. And yesterday at cloudy Lake Tekapo started to confirm those fears. Today in Kaikoura changed them.

I went whale watching just off the Pacific coast, with big hopes of seeing a whale at least once. And it was much better than that! We saw two separate sperm whales, a pair of humpback whales, common dolphins, dusky dolphins, seals and albatrosses. It was so worth the money to do it. 

The dolphins playfully leapt up around the boat, exactly how I'd imagined them to. 

And the whales. They were so impressive! When they were floating on the surface it was difficult to get an idea of how big they are, but when they dive and give you the opportunity for the classic tail shot it's pretty overwhelming. One girl in our group actually started crying. And I was moved. They're just quite majestic creatures. 

Tomorrow morning we're heading north to the ferry over to Wellington, and on the way stopping at a seal colony just north of Kaikoura, which is home to dozens of baby seals. A girl I met in Dunedin showed me a video clip of them all playing around a small waterfall, and it looks like the cutest thing in the world. So that should wake me up in the morning! 

Ten days left in New Zealand now, and then it's over the pond to Australia. And then I need to start job hunting. Time to settle somewhere for a bit, a feeling I'm not exactly used to right now.