Jill's Birthday

Thursday night we were in Kaikoura, which is known for crayfish (aka lobster) and whale watching. We had dinner out to sample the famous crayfish, which was delicious, but ridiculously overpriced. Friday Dec 23rd we went to the airport to go to Wings over Whales. We took a small

4-seater plane with only the two of us and the pilot to search for sperm whales, the 3rd largest of the whales. The first whale we spotted only stayed on the surface for about a minute before he started his decent to the depths. We got a really spectacular view of his tail rising out of the water as he went down. We flew around for about 15 more minutes, and finally found another whale who had just come up. We circled around him for about ten minutes. There was a boat in the vicinity also, so we really got a good idea of the size of the nearly 67 foot mammal. It was so amazing to see such a massive animal from above. After whale watching we drove from the east coast, inland to Hamner Springs, which is a small town centered on a natural hot spring. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the thermal pools and at the spa. Friday night we went to a nice dinner to end a wonderful birthday for Jill.