An incredible sunrise followed by an equally incredible day!

I'll admit it was pretty tough to get out of bed at 5am this morning, as soon as we got onto the ocean the sky was the focus of everybodys attention, just stunning. The sunrise out here off the coast of Kaikoura is amazing, pinks, oranges, reds and yellows lit up the sky. We started to encounter a few dolphins, beginning to pod up. I couldn't help but get a quick picture of the moment, but it doesn't do it justice...its stored in my memory though forever :-) as we prepared the swimmers for their swim the sun began to rise, they all slipped into the crystal clear water quickly surrounded by a very curious pod of 200 + dusky dolphins, with the odd fur seal drifting by, and albatross flying close overhead. One guy took his snorkel out put both fists in the air and shouted "this is awsome man" we watched as the dolphins created silhouettes against the mackerel sky, jumping and splashing. It was beautiful.

Yesterday was similar, the morning was stunning, it was one of our customers first times ever on a boat on the open ocean, he chose a great day! i said "isn't it amazing?" he replied "it's so wonderful it hurts my heart"....i thought what a lovely thing to say, he was speechless :-).

I had a funny feeling id see something big today, as soon as i woke up i thought to myself - i want to see a whale, as i hadn't had a whale fix for a while!

Throughout the day we had no sign of any whales, but huge numbers of dolphin. On our final trip i rounded up the talk and people thanked me for the information, i looked upto the helm and Mal (another guide) was peering through a large pair of binoculars....that normally means somethings on the horizon....so we started to make our way back to base, i was just returning the microphone when Mal mentioned there had been a sighting of a sperm whale and a blue whale in the area. I crossed everything and watched the ocean.

...Then sure enough this huge blow was spotted at 9 o'clock on the port side, a Blue whale was gracing us with its presence, the largest mammal on the planet right there with a backdrop of the mountains. It was about half a mile away so i was unable to get my camera in time to get a picture but i watched as a huge back rolled at the surface eventually showing a tiny dorsal fin.

The blue whale is a cosmopolitan species found in most oceans it is described as gigantic but graceful with a maximum length of 33.6m! Its blow can reach 9-12m and its straight up! It then disappeared and i scanned the horizon again, i spotted it again at 7 o'clock towards the back of the boat, gosh they can move, they don't hang around! The animal blew 3 more times and then vanished....awesome!

We all smiled and continued with the journey home, the sea was slight, very calm, perfect conditions...then i spotted another blow at 12 o'clock dead ahead of us...this time characteristics of a sperm whale, bushy blow out to the left hand side...we watched as this 20-55 ton whale breathed at the surface for a few seconds before taking a deep dive and showing us his tail fluke...it was such a treat! i apologised to the passengers about my excitement and explained to them, this is the reason i wanted to work here!


Today made me realise that if you wake up with a wishful thought, however big or small, ridiculous or unlikely it seems just hold onto it and you might just be rewarded!
:-)