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Kaikoura railway station, now also the home of "Whale Watch" where as the name suggests you can go on a boat tour to look at many kinds of marine life from albatrosses and fur seals through to the mighty sperm whale. In fact, given there's only one passenger train each way per day - the Coastal Pacific between Picton / Waitohi and Christchurch - the whale watch operation is busier than the rail service.
The station is used as the main booking office and tour starting point, where passengers then board buses to be taken to the marina on the south coast where the tour boats depart from. Once the tour is over, passengers are then bussed back from the marina to the station.
In other words, this building has transitioned from primarily being a "railway station" to being a "whale way-station".
Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week...
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The station is used as the main booking office and tour starting point, where passengers then board buses to be taken to the marina on the south coast where the tour boats depart from. Once the tour is over, passengers are then bussed back from the marina to the station.
In other words, this building has transitioned from primarily being a "railway station" to being a "whale way-station".
Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week...
Posted using PostyBirb
Category Photography / Scenery
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 2217 x 1662px
File Size 987 kB
Whale-watching in NZ is tightly controlled - the boats / aircraft (yes, there's whale-watching flights as well) have to keep a certain distance away from the whale, and only a few boats / aircraft are allowed to be in proximity. And "swimming with the whales" is a definite no-no, so the recent humpback whale vs. swimmer incident in Australia couldn't happen here. This particular whale-watch company is run by the local Maori iwi (tribe), and they take their guardianship of the local sealife VERY seriously.
On the trip I went on, we encountered a sperm whale (nicknamed 'Lazarus'), some Hector's dolphins, a hundred or so Dusky dolphins, albatrosses, and at least one fur seal. Tracking "Lazarus" was almost like hunting a submarine with the tour boat dipping hydrophones every so often to listen for the whale's sonar and determine when he was going to surface...
On the trip I went on, we encountered a sperm whale (nicknamed 'Lazarus'), some Hector's dolphins, a hundred or so Dusky dolphins, albatrosses, and at least one fur seal. Tracking "Lazarus" was almost like hunting a submarine with the tour boat dipping hydrophones every so often to listen for the whale's sonar and determine when he was going to surface...
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