Whale Watching in Kaikoura

We had fantastic weather and sea conditions for our catamaran trip to find a whale.  What we saw (twice) was the same male sperm whale who is approximately 35 years old.  Apparently the females live in the tropics but the males live here until they become sexually mature at about 40 and then they head up to the tropics for some hoop-la.  Our whale was not particularly active, spectacular or exciting on this day and that is reflected in the few semi-decent photos I managed to get.

Aoraki - the very fast catamaran we went on	Super technical whale echo locating equipment (note the plastic New World bag holding it together)	Where’s the whale?
Where’s the whale?	Look, I found him!	This male sperm whale is 18 metres long (the same length as the boat we were on)  Thank goodness whales never surface under a boat
the arching of the hump means he’s getting ready to dive – get those cameras ready	a quick flick of the tail (called the fluke)	….. and that’s it folks …. in a heartbeat, he’s gone