Kaikoura is an exceptional place due to it's geography which means it is one of the premier places in the world for marine life. It is unusual in that along half a mile of the coast, the continental shelf drops away very quickly to a depth of half a mile which combined with the mixing of two currents (one warm and one cold), form perfect conditions for krill,which is the lifeblood of so much marine life, including whales, seals, sealions and many sea birds. NZ is home to 75% of all the world's species of sea birds. Kaikoura is also home to many of the worlds whales, such as Sperm whale, Humpback, Killer (Orca) and Blue whale. The great thing here is that they are very accessible from the town by boat. So we hopped aboard a Whale Watch boat and headed out to sea. Little did we know how lucky we would be that afternoon. We were hunting predominently for Sperm whales, which are around 50ft long and can weigh 50 tonnes. They come to this area because in addition to the krill, giant squid (known locally as sea monsters) live here, which they feed on. From it's description, we hope never to meet a giant squid. As just one of it's tenticles can be up to 60ft long it sounds like it would fit perfectly in a scene from Jules Vernes 20,000 leagues under the sea. The Sperm whale will dive to 3,000ft in search of the giant squid and will stay submerged for upto 2 hours at a time before coming up for breath. When it does, it will remain on the surface for about 10 minutes while it reoxiginates 3 tonnes of blood - yes it's blood alone weighs three tonnes - in preparation for its next dive. It is at this point that you get to see them on the surface. Our boat was equipped with microphones which aided our hunting of them. Once spotted on the surface, we would engage the massive engines we had to speed our way across the sea and pull up alongside. The huge mammal was indeed a sight to behold, just cruising very slowly on the water before it would begin a new dive. At this point, we would see it lift it's monsterous tail out of the water and dive. We we lucky enough to see four seperate Sperm whales in the afternoon. However the 'coup de grace' was when one of them jumped whole out of the sea, doing a 'breach' before diving down agian. To see a 50 tonne whale fully out of the water is quite something and quite a rare event. Kaikoura is also home to a large group of fur seals. Not being content with seeing them form 50ft away, we decided to don a wet suit and get up close and personal with them in their natural habitat. Let us tell you, the South Pacific waters around here are cold. We had to have a VERY thick 14mm wetsuit for our hour in the water. A boat took us out to a group of rocks out at sea where the seals like to hang out. As soon as we swam up to them, they went into 'play' mode, coming right up to us and whizzing around us, even giving us a friendly nudge from time to time. They were very content to come face to face, literally just an inch or two from our face and give us a curious look. Often they would be hanging upside down wondering what species we were. They would dive deep and come flying back up right underneath us or else just paddle around and in between us a very close quarters. All in all, one of the great things we've done on this trip. Being in amongst wild seals in this environment was great fun.