Physeter macrocephalus

Sperm Whale.

My favourite of the whales. I don't know why. Maybe because of its geometrical, aesthetically pleasing shape. Or the fact that barnacles don't tend to grow on them. It was my favourite whale before I read Moby Dick, and even after I read of it savaging both the Pequod and the whale ship The Essex (in Into The Deep by Nathaniel Hawthorne) it's still my favourite. And before now, I'd never seen one in the blubber before.

Today, however, I travelled to Kaikoura, a couple hours north of Christchurch and went on a whale watching trip. As much as it was just watching a grey, rubbery mass floating at the surface, spouting out water vapour every 15 seconds from its blowhole (the only whale to have its blowhole situated on the left hand side of its head at the front, rather than the middle, before its dorsal fin) it was a pretty incredible experience. Especially when it up-tailed and sounded.

After seeing this one, we spotted another doing very much the same thing. While the first whale decided to show us the span of his tail, though, the second pulled some kind of weird side-sound and we only got a view of what looked like a massive sharks fin.

The lovely folks at Whale Watch Kaikoura (who cannot be recommended more highly by me) say that one or two are the normal numbers of whale spots on a trip, and that any more are your 'bonus whales'. Luckily for me - and I have been rather lucky with wildlife these days - a pod of orcas decided to grace us with their presence and spent a good 20 minutes bouncing about and under our boat. It was pretty spectacular.

Couple that with the fact that I got to see the albatross I missed on the Doubtful Sound trip (perhaps my new favourite bird) and it was an amazing trip.

I'm also proud of myself because despite the sea sickness warning we got, and despite the fact I had to sit at the front of the boat, which any experienced boatman will tell you is the sickiest part, I didn't even feel sick! Found my sealegs afterall!

I think I've used too many superlatives in this blog since my holiday started so I'll refrain. But you can imagine how happy I am with my lot today.