Kawarau Whale Watch, South NZ Attraction (my TripAdvisor review)

A must see experience if one happens to be travelling along South New Zealand. There is  little else in the town of Kaikura besides Pāua shells and this whale watching trip. There is only a street long of souvenir shop outlets and small eateries that are present in the town area.

Kawarau pastry shop view by Evelyn Wong

This whale watching experience was the highlight of my South NZ trip.

Kaikura Whale Watch by Evelyn Wong

The real-life close up experience of seeing the whale up close was well complemented by factual and informative videos detailing the characteristics of the different species of animals the speed boat comes across. Without this, I would never have found out why the Sperm whales were actually called a Sperm whale. The reason being that the oil stored in its forehead was mistaken as sperm; when the fluid spilled upon the whales first capture by fishermen. Neither would I have known that whales are omnivorous. They eat sharks. Yes, sharks.

It was exhilarating being able to be directly beside the captain as he used an underwater listening device, which looked a lot like a loudspeaker that had an opposite function, in order to detect where the whale was. The whale watching boats worked together to find the last and current location of the whale.

Animals spotted: 1 whale and when it descended into the water, seal lions and 5 dolphins.

Sperm Whale Tail by Evelyn Wong

The whole experience was so WOW.

Despite the whale not being as active as I had imagined it to be, every little movement it made left me giggling in sheer happiness. There really is nothing quite like being within a 15m distance to one of the largest animals on this planet. It's dive was beautiful, taking less than a minute for its body to visibly arch to the surface before its nose dive brought its tail down with it.
The seals were tired, lazy and camouflaged against the rock. Whilst, the dolphins, true to its friendly nature, provided a splendid performance of flips, chase and semi-waves all around us. It was incredible.

For those with sea sickness, it is highly recommended to eat motion sickness tablets. The waves are incredibly rough and the boat takes no consideration as to whether you can tolerate the rocky waves. There were atleast 8 passengers on my particular ride that looked blue and remained inside even when the boat was stationery to give time to sight see. On a good note, the staff are more than willing to assist with providing tissues, stability and there is plenty of paper bags in the front pocket of seats.

Wind Rush by Evelyn Wong

Love,
Evelyn W.

P.S. All photographs were taken using my Canon EOS D70. <3 nbsp="" p="">