Saturday, July 27 - Here Comes the Sun

On the last day of our overnight trip, we woke up to the sound of “Here Comes the Sun” in the Marae meeting house, or Wharenui, to see that the fog had lifted. We had slept under the sacred and spiritual carvings of ancient Maori stories and gods that lined the inside of the Wharenui, through which Maori ancestors had filled our heads with many colorful dreams, and even some prophetic ones. After a short breakfast at the Maori Wharekai (dining room), we put everything back the way it was and headed out.

A fierce tribe performing a haka outside of the Wharenui

At this point in the day, seven of the group split off to go whale-watching while the rest went on the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway to have a fun walk up to the Huttons Shearwater predator proof area. The whale-watchers took a bus to South Bay on the west side of the Kaikoura Peninsula, where we got on a boat that took us Southwest along the Eastern coast. Whales are a very important part of Maori culture, particularly the southern right whale or Tohora, the whale that Paikea rode in the Maori Whale Rider legend that was later made into a movie. Where we were, there were mainly sperm whales, however, we were lucky enough to see a sei whale shortly after our journey started. Sei whales are the third largest whale species, after the blue whale and the fin whale. After this sighting, the crew was on the hunt for sperm whales for the rest of the day, while our host educated us. Sperm whales are the largest predatory animal in existence, reaching lengths of up to 20.5 meters and weighing up to 65 tons. They prey on large squid (such as the giant squid), octopus, sharks and other large fish, but their diet consists mainly of arrow squid. They will dive as deep as 3000 meters, and when hunting they will let out a call at 238 decibels, 34 decibels louder than a NASA space launch, that will stun and sometimes even kill their prey. Today we saw three sperm whales, all males, each with names the crew had given them. We also saw two New Zealand fur seals and several albatrosses and giant petrels. The most notable of the sperm whales was Tiaki (Maori for “protector”), a very large male that seems to have taken up protecting the other whales in the area, and our host’s favorite of the lot.

On the top deck looking out at the East coast

Watching Tiaki surface

Tiaki surfacing with an albatross overhead

A diving sperm whale

The peninsula-walkers left from Point Kean and took the Peninsula Walkway along the hillsides facing the ocean and the rocky sea floor that had risen 4 meters out of the water. There they got to experience the twisted limestone on the rocky coastline and spectacular panoramic views of the Pacific.

The Huttons Shearwater predator proof area on the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway

Everyone regrouped for lunch at the world-famous Kaikoura Seafood BBQ, where we ate a variety of seafood delicacies, such as crayfish and whitebait fritters, prawns, and salmon steak.

Reunited at the Kaikoura Seafood BBQ

Finally, after a long three days at Waipara and Kaikoura, we headed back to Christchurch, with the uneasy feeling that the end of our trip was approaching more rapidly than we would like.

-Dylan