New Zealand fur seal vs Octopus!

The New Zealand fur seal is found off the islands a coasts of New Zealand where there is a population of approximately 85,000-135,000. They are able to dive to upto 270m and can hold their breath for upto 11 minutes. Their favourite prey is squid and octopus, with some fish, lampreys, rock lobster and penguins. On one of todays tours we saw as a fur seal latched onto an octopus and lashed it around. (Again the pictures aren't the greatest but hopefully you can make out the octopus) x

pilot reports 40 pilot whale in the area!

Todaythe pilot of the helicopter used the radio to report that there were 40 pilot whale travelling through the area, they were closely followed by a pod of bottlenosed dolphins! unfortunately they were too far offshore for our dolphin boats to see them. However our boats did manage to spot a sun fish, something we don't encounter every day.
here are some pictures of the juvinile humpback whale that joined us at the start of the season, he's ventured off now on his migration of 16,000km from cold waters where they feed in the spring to tropical water winter breeding grounds like Tonga. He looked at me as i took the pictures, hopefully you can make out his eye in the first picture. (pics taken on a small pocket camera so thery're nothing special but they'll do) x

a warm evening sun...

today consisted of eating fresh cherries, pineapple and banana, a spot of yoga, reading my book and watching the wind create an energy amongst the waves. Kaikoura is busy at the moment with the hustle and bustle of travellers and the locals enjoying the sunshine. it really felt like summer was here today, iv gained some freckles x

its the little things...

This little heart bought a smile to my face...a huge thankyou to a very special person, i love suprises x

a treat from a customer :-)

haha, this was a little gift one of our customers left for me at reception...so sweet x

A fabulous day at work...

Another stunning day in Kaikoura, clear blue skies, slight to moderate seas and mountains providing an incredible backdrop. At one stage we had 300/400 dusky dolphins, its pretty special to see so many at the surface, they are fast and very active swimmers and highly acrobatic at the surface.

The dusky dolphins were later joined by a pod of Hectors dolphin. This species is the smallest (and cutest) of the dolphin species. They are endemic to New Zealand, they are definately not as acrobatic as the dusky dolphins, but today they decided they wanted a swim, and were very inquisitive, they continued to follow our boat for a while. They are about 1.5m in length and barely break the surface.

In amongst the pod of dusky dolohins was a common dolphin, unfortunately i was unable to take a picture but it was good to see. I think tis particular individual thinks he's a dusky as its the second time iv seen a lone common dolphin in amongst the duskys.

!BLUE WHALE ALERT!

Today the whale watch boats were lucky enough to spot not one but 5 blue whales! it's hard enough to see one let alone 5, apparently they were moving north from the wates of Antarctica.

picture take by whale watch Kaikoura 4.1.13

 They are gigantic (the biggest mammal living on this planet!), but graceful, there are approximately fewer than 10,000 currently on the planet! unfortunately our dolphin boats didn't get to see them. I wished i could have hired the helicopter, but at $1200 /hour that would be half my life savings gone, i guess it would be a priceless moment, but my time to see these magnificent creatures will come. Luckily yesterday i did manage to see a sperm whale blow in the distance, we also had sightings of common dolphin and the skipper reckons he saw a basking shark move in front of the boat. We do sea blue sharks but less common are basking sharks. Jay the skipper said the shadow was pretty big, whatever it was it moved slowly....i love my office...you never know what suprises the ocean holds.