This morning was an early start for our Kaikoura canyon cruise. The seafloor drops dramatically just off shore into one of the deepest ocean trenches in the world. The canyon drops to a mile deep making it an ideal location for feeding grounds for the great sperm whales. This whales grow to 60 feet long and are the largest sea predators, eating fish, squid and seals. This is some of the information shared at the Kaikoura Whale welcome center where we boarded the bus to go to our 50 foot ocean going cruiser, the Aoraki. They warned that the sea was rough, but we decided we could make it. The ship was fitted with ocean listening devices that they could listen the whales sonar, but apparently the whales were father out to sea.
We did see Hector and Dusty dophins (which are species unique to this area) racing along to see us. 
We saw an Albatross, which is a huge seabird with a 6 foot wing span. They migrate 1000s of miles across the ocean, and can even fly while they sleep. He doesn't look as big just floating in the sea, but we were a good way out. We also saw beautiful views of the Southern Alps above the emerald green sea.
The
marina was very unusual to us because all these long ocean going
vessels were pulled out and parked. Each seemed to have its own
personal tractor dedicated to the trailers they sat on. 
Before we left town we decided to stop by the Paua factory store to look at the beautiful shells again, and a grocery store for a few essentials - Coke Zero (in 8 oz cans), apples and shaving cream.
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