Day 85 Kiakoura to Nelson,NZ

This morning we left our cozy tree house rooms and headed off on our whale watching adventure. We weren’t in the boat 10 minutes before our guide William spotted a whale on the surface of the water. The boat quickly turned so we could get a better view of it. Once close enough we could see that what we found was a Sperm Whale. This leviathan of the deep was actually sleeping and would exhale every 5 minutes or so. The captain estimated it to be about 18 meters long and 30 years old. They live to about the age of eighty and don’t start reproducing until they are at least twenty years old. It was a special experience to be able to get so close and observe such a large animal. Next we spotted some dolphins and enjoyed watching them swim around the boat as we continued to keep up our speed. Finally, we were able to return to the original whale and see it swim for a little while before it had enough of us and dove out of sight. We were back in the van for our drive north and stopped for lunch at the Allen Scott winery where we had a wine tasting followed by a delicious lunch. After lunch we drove across the street and had another wine tasting at the Cloudy Bay winery. Not a bad couple of hours. We then drove north to our hotel for this evening, the Monaco Apartments, in Nelson, NZ. This hotel looks like a quaint English set of row houses. Red brick covered with ivy with red tile roofs set around a cute little courtyard with flowers and an open green area. We will have to enjoy it quickly because we are up early tomorrow to catch our ferry to the north island. Chris – Today was a fun filled day as we enjoyed the whales and dolphins in Kaikoura. There are sperm whales here all year round, although there are only male whales as the water is too cold for the women…you got that right! We had a beautiful day that was pretty temperate and fairly calm. Yesterday it was so rough they didn’t even go out for their cruises. We weren’t able to get the fan of the entire tail of the whale but he allowed us to get a partial view as he slipped below the surface. There were about 20 or more dolphins that played along side the boat. They jumped out of the water and came very close to the side where we were standing. Today’s wine tasting and lunch was very satisfying, even for us non wine drinkers as it was a gorgeous setting. We lunched at Allan Scott Family Winemakers among the sculptured gardens and vine covered trellises. The setting was what you’d dream a winery would look like and the food just as special. It was a fun lunch. On our way to Nelson to our quaint cottage hotel we stopped at Tahunanui Beach for Tracy to look for shells and we all could get some fresh air. It was a wide sandy beach with a warm breeze and it was nice to be able to get out and walk along the shoreline.