Whale Watching - Kiakoura = ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!

I LOVE it when expensive things you pay to do turn out to be worth every single penny and more - don't you!? Well I have just arrived back from a Whale Watch in Kiakoura (East Coast, South Island), renowned for it's sealife and I literally couldn't wait to jump online and share this with you - IT WAS FANTASTIC and I literally can't stop smiling!

Kiakoura has resident Sperm Whales 12 months a year. However, even though we saw 6 of these, they don't really do much, though still very awesome in size and granduer, and I managed to 'very-nearly' get a good tail raise photo. The best was by far to come when we ran into a rare occurance - a Pod of 15 Orca (Killer Whales)!!!! And we didn't just follow them, oh no! They played around, alongside and under the boat for the best part of an hour! Even the guides say that they only see orca maybe once a month tops and seeing them playing with us like that was one of their best sightings in years!!! And this is on MY particular boat trip - WOW! Can you tell I'm buzzing people!!!??? lol!

So I managed to achieve a few ok photos and some awesome video - enjoy!
(Please note that holding a camera still on a choppy boat, trying to get a good photo of things that don't stay still is near impossible - the following are the best I could get I'm afraid!)

Sperm Whales

Nearly got the tail-raise here - 2 seconds too early - bum! :P

Orca/Killer Whales (Pod of 15, complete with gigantic male, mums and babies!)

Big Daddy (trust me he was HUGE!)