A perfect suprise...

So i woke up on Friday and called work to see if there were any spaces left on the tour for dolphin swimming, luckily there were so i was excited to be spending an afternoon swimming with the dolphins before i leave Kaikoura.

I had a few things to sort out in town before i leave, like getting my paua shells polished so that i can send them home, they are beautiful and i really want to keep them, so hopefully they will turn out well and i can send them home.

I then returned home and had lunch and checked facebook, as i was scannin through i noticed the word 'Orca' in an updated status from Whale Watch! eeeeeeeek i started to get excited. We havn't seen orca in the area for about 6 weeks! i hurried my lunch and then headed down to work.

I noticed my text message memory was full, so i deleted some messages, then a message came through:

"Hey Jenny get your skates on come down to work we've got orca in the bay!"

I ran into work with a huge smile on my face and just prayed that they would stay around for me!

And of course they did, they are incredible! such a wicked feeling to see them feeding in the wild and so close to the boat, i got some wicked video, and some pictures which i have uploaded below! What a way to spend my day off!

Do what you love and love what you do...

Well we havn't seen the sun in Kaikoura for a week or so, and now it's back! In time for my last week on the ocean! wow that 6 months has flown by!
So i was asked by the boss if i wanted to go out for the afternoon and do some promotional filming, "urrrghhh yeah" was my response!

So we got out the RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) and headed out, with the wind in my hair and the sunshining it was perfect.

First of all we hijacked the albatross tour and we found ourselves surrounded by 39 Wandering albatrosses, pretty incredible.

We then headed off in search of the dolphins, the water was very clear and the seas slight. We found the pod and some of the dolphins came in to bow ride, it felt like we were swimming along with 300 dolphins, there were also some common dolphins amongst the pod, awesome! As Dennis got his footage we watched dolphins leaping and dancing in the waves, and that is what i call "work" haha i am a strong believer that if you love what you do and do what you love, it is not work any more!

Here are some photographs from my afternoon!

What an incredible backdrop....

The majestic snow-capped mountains were the backdrop for my whole day, they are beautiful, and they are made even more beautiful when a flock of birds flies accross them, in this case it was a group of Spotted shags. They live near estuaries, harbours and coastal waters. In flight they appear to be slender, they were so graceful.

Some dusky behaviours....

These dusky dolohin are a highly acrobatic species as you may have seen from the previous pictures throughout this blog, they also show us other behaviours each day. One very strange behaviour we see alot is when the dolohins decide to tail slap, it can last for ages, the dolphin rolls onto its back and begins slapping its tail, this has often been followed by mating, when the dolphins go belly to belly, so the tail slapping could be related to a courtship behaviour or a mating signal, i guess we'll never know, but it's pretty funny when it happens. Sometimes we even see a jump and a tail slap together, they're a playful bunch!

An afternoon in a dinghy with the duskies! :-)

Blown away...

So i walk into work after my day off sick, and my friend Nick asks if i heard what happened yesterday, i said i have no idea, "they saw blue whale", i didnt believe him, and then Ed wondered into the office "Thanks for being sick yesterday Jen, i covered for you it was wonderful!" when i asked why, Ed went on to describe that a blue whale, the largest living mammal on the planet decided to cruise at the surface right near our tour vessels. Then i heard that Jay, a skipper who has seen plenty of whales and been around the world on a boat, said it was the best view he's ever had of a bluey! I couldn't believe it, i am never ill, im never off, iv been working for 7 days, it would have been the greatest day of my life if id been on that boat, i was suppose to be on that boat! then i proceeded to look at the pictures from the work camera, well, what can i say, calm seas, and some incredible footage of the blue whale just scraping below the surface of the crystal clear water. Then Tracey told me that after they had finished their shift they went and got a kayak and followed the whale for the evening as the sun set! i mean really! the universe was not on my side, i guess it wasn't meant to be, but i know one thing, i wont be having another sick day ever again! haha

So the day at work continued with stories of this beautiful bluey, which had decided to swim right below the boat, head one side and tail the other, it was torture, and as hard as i tried i couldn't shake my jealousy! Then we heard via the radio that he was still out there!

The next thing i know im boarding a rubber dinghy, as i wasn't needed for guiding on the afternoon tours, and we're heading out onto the ocean. The sun shining, blue skies, very slight sees in search of a blue whale. We got a GPS of its last location sighted by Whale Watch, we headed in that direction and then turned off the engines and waited...
and waited...
and waited...
I thought we were pushing our luck, oh well its not meant to be and my heart started to sink,
THEN
we heard it DEAD AHEAD of us, this huge breath, a blow about 8m high,
Luckily i managed to get some pictures unlike my last sighting. The encounter was fairly brief and the whale surfaced about 4 times with about 5 minute intervals before he came up to take a breath. It was wonderful trying to guess where he would appear and then listening out for his immense blow. We then decided to leave the area as he dived and didn't reappear for about 15 minutes and the main reason Dennis and Ed had got the dinghy out was to get some footage of dolphins, visability was amazing and the dolphins were very playful. We managed to get some wicked GoPro footage, what a way to spend the afternoon! How will i ever work in an office again!

Black-Browed Albatross :-)

Over the last 6 months i have seen 5 species of albatross or mollymawks. Today i was lucky enough to see the 6th species, The Black-Browed Mollymawk, now there are two sub species the NZ Black-browed mollymawk and the Subantarctic Black-browed mollymawk...personally i think the pictures i got are of a Subantarctic Black-browed mollymawk as its eye was brown, whereas the NZ Black-browed mollymawk has a honey-coloured eyes. The subantarctic mollymawk breeds circumpolar subantarctic, including Bollons I, Western chain (the Snares) and the Campbell Islands, they are often seen of NZ coast, especially in winter. Their black brow is very obvious, they are beautiful and its almost like they have a bit of lipstick on the end of their bill, very feminine!

here are a few pictures:

Bellbird

Today I managed to get a picture of a Bellbird, they were being very vocal whilst i walked home from work, the males are olive green and the females much browner. They have beautiful red eyes, the photograph is not the best but hopefully gives you an idea. They seemed to be feeding on the berries from the tree.

Orca, too close to photograph...

My friend Sarah managed to capture a moment in time of my life which i will never forget. We had been seeing Orca on each of our trips throughout the day...they are simply awesome, my favourite dolphin. Well there was one moment on our final tour, where i decided to stay away from the crowd and hang out on the back deck. The Orca had dived and we were static on the ocean holding our breath waiting for them to appear, i heard a breath of air then i shouted "right here below me!" its blow drifted my way and i was too close for my camera to focus, so i took off my sunglasses put my camera down and just enjoyed the moment...the water was crystal clear the sky was blue and the sun shining - such a natural high, thanks to my fabulous friend Sarah Alice Lee for capturing the moment :-) (one day you will be in the water with them babe, hold onto your dream! )