After what feels like the first lie in for ages, we went out whale watching this afternoon.

Kaikoura is one of the few places in the world, from where it's easy to access a deep oceanic trench. It's only a couple of km off shore, and drops to around 1,600m deep. It's a nutrient rich area, which means lots of little fishies. The little fishies are good food for whales, so the area is rich in marine wildlife.

It wasn't long before we encountered two adolescent male sperm whales. They were hanging around the surface relaxing. One decided to swim toward the boat to have a closer look at us, before diving. The other soon followed. Amazing to watch, and at nearly 15m long, they were bloody enormous.

Next, we had a look at some albatrosses - not a big deal. They look like fat sea gulls. Jacklyn seemed to like them

Afterwards, we moved closer to the coast, and found a pod of around 200 dusky dolphins. They were everywhere you looked! They're quite small, only about 1.6m long, and love playing around. We were surrounded by dolphins jumping out of the water, belly flopping, and back flipping. So cool! They seemed as interested in us, as we were in them. As we started to make our way back to harbour, they continued to follow us, leaping out of the water, or riding the bow wave of the boat.