Yesterday I'd been reading of the 78 species of whales and dolphins in the world 35 can be seen in NZ waters. For a small country that's a large percentage. Sperm whales are the largest of the toothed whales (the others are baleen whales) and orcas are the biggest of the dolphins. Interesting facts which might come up in a pub quiz. If we did pub quizzes.
As dawn was breaking David was below sleeping and I was on watch contemplating my belly button, admiring the visual beauty of the start of the day and thinking aren't these the right conditions to see wildlife when a pod of bottlenose dolphins came swimming past. There must have been on a mission to be somewhere because they didn't come close to investigate just swam on by.
Barely half an hour later and I spotted 'smoke' and a small dorsal fin 100 meters off our starboard beam. Only whales spout water through their vents holes. Sperm whales! Knowing David would want to see them I woke him by banging on the coach roof and hollering 'whales' as one would. He came flying up dragging on t shirt and shorts ad we turned direction to come closer to the pod. There were about half a dozen animals lazing on the surface. They might have been sleeping. We approached slowly and from the side as recommended and had a good view before they flicked their flukes and dived.
And at the end of 'wildlife day' we had Royal Albatross soaring around us. An albatross is unmistakable with it's 3m wingspan.
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