Some fascinating facts about the Sperm whale. Did you know that it got it's name from the early whalers, because when they caught one and opened it up they found 2 1/2 tonnes of what they thought was semen in the whale's forehead. Can you imagine carrying 2 1/2 tonnes of semen in your forehead? ewwww.

In actual fact what is held in the forehead of the sperm whale is OIL. And it's use is pretty incredible. When they are at the surface, breathing, they cool it down, and it turns solid, letting them sink down to the bottom of the sea to feed. Once down on the bottom, using blood vessels they heat it up so it liquefies, meaning they float up to the surface. Both actions use the minimum amount of effort. Isn't that incredible? An internal buoyancy system.

As you can probably tell I have just been whalewatching.

I very nearly missed the bus to Kaikoura, but I arrived there on Saturday, unfortunately in terrible pain because of the walking around trying to find the bus stop that everyone thought was in a different location, and because the bus driver thought he would ignore all the rules of the road and overtake every little thing. There was even a U turn in a main street in Christchurch at one point! The weather looked terrible when we arrived. There was a 3 metre swell on the sea and severe seasickness warnings for anyone going out. I tried to get myself on a whalewatching tour thinking the next day would be worse, but gave up as the pain got worse. (read unbearable)

Sunday came around and miraculously was sunny. Amazingly I got myself on a morning tour - I was originally due to go out in the afternoon but everyone was saying the weather would be taking a turn for the worse.

To cut a long story short I saw two very cool sperm whales floating on the surface taking in oxygen after an hour long dive, and even better, lots of dolphins. How many?

5? No
10? No
100? No!!

The crew counted 415 dolphins around our boat!

It was just incredible and I got so many photos of them jumping in the air. They were the tiny Hector's dolphins, which are only found around the coast of New Zealand so it was even more magical. We spent ten minutes in their presence and it was just brilliant. They were all showing off like anything.

I got the bus back yesterday evening and spent the rest of the day in terrible pain; the worst it's been on my trip, but I'm so glad I got to experience that. It was amazing. My bus ride back was equally hairraising, and very twisty. But I got a bus earlier than expected so I got back at 7pm instead of 11pm.

I am glad to be back in this hostel - the one in Kaikoura was not so nice after this one here. I now have the job of squeezing everything into my suitcase for my flight to Auckland tomorrow. The flight home is on Wednesday. Because of the pain I am definitely looking forward to getting back, but what a trip it has been.