Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Marine Mammal-Watching
Kaikoura, on the northeast coast of the South Island, is NZ's nexus of marine mam-
mal-watching. The main attraction here is whale-watching, but this is dependent on
weather conditions, so don't expect to just be able to rock up and head straight out on a
boat for a dream encounter. The sperm whale, the largest toothed whale, is pretty much a
year-round resident, and depending on the season you may also see migrating humpback
whales, pilot whales, blue whales and southern right whales. Other mammals - including
fur seals and dusky dolphins - are seen year-round.
Kaikoura is also an outstanding place to swim with dolphins. Pods of up to 500 play-
ful, dusky dolphins can be seen on any given day. Dolphin swimming is common else-
where in NZ, with the animals gathering off the North Island near Whakatane, Paihia,
Tauranga and in the Hauraki Gulf, and off Akaroa on the South Island's Banks Peninsula.
Seal swimming is possible in Kaikoura and in the Abel Tasman National Park.
TOWERING KAURI
When Chaucer was born this was a sturdy young tree. When Shakespeare was
born it was 300 years old. It predates most of the great cathedrals of Europe. Its
trunk is sky-rocket straight and sky-rocket bulky, limbless for half its height. Ferns
sprout from its crevices. Its crown is an asymmetric mess, like an inverted root sys-
tem. I lean against it, give it a slap. It's like slapping a building. This is a tree out of
Tolkien. It's a kauri.
Joe Bennett,author ofA Land of Two Halves,referring to the McKinney kauri in
Northland
Trees
No visitor to NZ (particularly Australians!) will go for long without hearing about the
damage done to the bush by that bad-mannered Australian import, the brush-tailed pos-
sum. The long list of mammal pests introduced to NZ, whether accidentally or for a vari-
ety of misguided reasons, includes deer, rabbits, stoats, pigs and goats. But by far the
most destructive is the possum, 70 million of which now chew through millions of
tonnes of foliage a year despite the best efforts of the Department of Conservation
(DOC) to control them.
Among favoured possum food are NZ's most colourful trees: the kowhai, a small-
leaved tree growing to 11m, which in spring has drooping clusters of bright-yellow
flowers (NZ's national flower); the pohutukawa, a beautiful coastal tree of the northern
