From Christchurch we headed on towards Kaikoura for some whale spotting, and decided to stop at Hanmer Springs on the way. The springs themselves were a bit overcrowded with kids but we did enjoy hiring a cyclo and pedalling ourselves around the pretty little Hanmer village.
When we arrived in Kaikoura we were pretty tired and had luckily pre-arranged some excellent accomodation. Our first night we stayed at a little self-catering chalet called Bay Cottages, it was very tidy and we both slept well.
We woke up the next day ready to see the whales. We were very lucky as we managed to spot 7 sperm whales - a bit of a record number apparently. All the whales were named by the whalers for obvious reasons, the blue whale because they are blue, the killer whale because it eats sea lions, seals and even other whales etc.
However, they made a bit of a mistake with the sperm whale as when they first caught this 30-tonne monster they found a large deposit of a white sticky substance in his head- they formed their own conclusions as to what this could be. They realised they had made a mistake when they caught a female sperm whale and found the same sticky substance- doh!!! It turns out this is actually an oil that the whale uses as a buoyancy control device. The whale pumps blood to this oil and melts it when he wants to surface and cuts the blood supply, freezing the oil when he wants to go beneath. Why those whalers thought anything would need a large deposit of sperm in their head is quite beyond me (please make up your own jokes here).
After a great day whale spotting we headed to Hapuku Lodge and were delighted when we arrived to be told we had been upgraded to a luxury treehouse. It was beautiful as you can see from the pictures. The room included an iPod with music of our choice, a spa jacuzzi bath, views out to sea and over the deer farm and all the trimmings of a five-star pad. We also had an excellent dinner here with lots of wine. After dinner Gemma's dad phoned just in time to still be chatting while we watched a comet soar through the skies overhead. It really was a perfect day!!
|  | 
|
