Whale Watching - my scenic travels

I’m going to incorporate all my whale watching experiences in one post, mainly because even though they were amazing experiences, they are all quite similar.
I will apologise for my photography skills, but taking photos of moving animals in water is not easy, especially if you’re not a photographer.

New Zealand

http://https;//myscenictravels.com/new-zealand/

First time we went was in New Zealand, Kaikoura, south island, on the east side. What makes Kaikoura so popular for whale watching is that there is a 3000m deep trench just 80 km from shore, this attracts whales mainly sperm whales. These whales like to dive to great depths to catch their food.
We ventured out on our trip that day back in 2004, to spot some whales. The boat was a fast Catamaran which sat approx 50 people. Little did we know that we were the last boat out as the weather was turning! It did get extremely windy and the boat was bouncing wildly against the waves, (i won’t go into details of what happened on that boat!)

Despite that we did see some sperm whales, slowly swimming along the surface catching their breath before diving down to the depths of the ocean.

Once they did their final dive we caught amazing views of their tails sinking into the water. That’s the dream photography shot.

We also saw a few pods of hector dolphins all swimming along side the boat. These Dolphins are a bit smaller than the usual bottlenose dolphins.

Norway

https://myscenictravels.com/tromso-norway/

Next trip was in Tromsø, Norway, Nov 2017, me and my husband took an excursion with a local company. We departed from the city, heading out into the fjords. The weather was sunny but cold and out on the water the temperature dropped. This boat was much bigger and could seat about 100 people, there were large standing areas on both decks.
The water was so calm compared to New Zealand and about 2 hours later we arrived at the place where the whales were spotted.

We were so lucky there was a pod of Humpback whales, about 5-6 of them were just feeding off the shore. The boat stayed watching them for a while slowly turning so that everyone could get a good view.

Suddenly someone shouted “look over there!” a pod of Orcas (killer whales) were behind us! They were swimming fast, again too many to count.

We didn’t know what direction to look in, whales everywhere. The humpbacks with the loud plumes of water being expelled from their blowholes and the fast black and white bodies of the Orcas breaking the water. We stayed for about an hour and both pods of whales hung around also, it was magical. Even if we didn’t see anything the fjords were enough to look at, just beautiful.

Canada

https://myscenictravels/canada/

Next experience was in Vancouver, Canada, Sept 2018. We were hoping to see humpbacks and Orcas again. We went with a local company which departs from Granville Island, just 30 min walk away from Vancouver city centre.

This was the smallest boat out of the 3 trips we have been on, and with the waters calm and mirror like we took off.

On the way we saw seals and a sea lion, just lounging on a big rock off the coast. Finally after looking around we eventually found a humpback. We watched it majestically rise along the surface hoping to catch a glimpse of the tail as it dives down. We stayed watching it for a while when suddenly it swam really close to the boat. You really don’t appreciate the size of these animals until you get quite close. Unfortunately it was the only whale we saw this time, but again the trip itself is definitely worth it. So after a few hours out we headed back to the mainland.

All 3 experiences were amazing, just to see these beautiful animals in the wild is such a breathtaking experience. I’ll always be on the lookout for other Whale excursions when i’m abroad, and who knows what we’ll see next.