Kaikoura
Kaikoura, where a very deep offshore canyon (Kaikoura canyon), up to 22,000 ft deep, is situated less than a mile from shore. The cold water upwelling brings in pelagic creatures that would never otherwise be found this close to shore. If you go to New Zealand and don't make the time to go to Kaikoura, you are a fool (in my humble opinion). This is the easiest place in the world to see sperm whales (sorry no pictures) and albatross, not to mention seals, sea lions, dolphins and other marine life.
You can swim with the local Dusky dolphins here. Nat and I did and it is amazing. I was the first one in and I dove down to get the dolphins to play and I had the entire pod around me. So overwhelming intense (with a few thousand feet of water below you to boot) that I actually started hyperventilating. You can hear the clicks, see them shoot past you, come in and look...
We also took a private bird chumming trip. This was an experience for ornithologists unrivaled in the whole world. We had about 6 species of albatross in 10 minutes: wandering, royal, black-browed, white-capped, Salvin's and Buller's.
Nat provides sustenance to a Wandering Albatross
A couple of Wanderers duke it out while a black-browed slips in for the 'kill'. Look at the wings on the darn things.
Come on' that's a f&ck%n' albatross this close to me. An albatross. I could have jumped on it from the boat. An albatross! All those years of my youth looking through wildlife magazines thinking of the southern seas and imagining albatross. An now one is eating fatty slimy chum out of my hands. Happiness indeed....
This is a highlight. So the big Wandering and Royal Albatross rule the chum basket (who wouldn't give them some room with an 11' wingspan), except this little cape pigeon (a petrel not a pigeon) on the right which kept sneaking in for some food. Brave little guy.
Mollymawks (smaller albatross species) come in the scraps
Along the coast. Nat and I did a couple of kelp dives. One of them was in a sea lion colony. The young males come down and play and swim right up to your mask. One put a big slime mark on the center of my mask, pretty cool.

To the next New Zealand page