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'Tourists and scientists meet along a whale superhighway which attracts humpback, minke, pilot whales and southern right whales, as well as gentle sperm whales and the killer orcas'
STRANGE things happen at Kaikoura, a village on a savagely beautiful strip of coastline on New Zealand's South Island.
Giant squid longer than football fields are thought to lurk offshore, tourists watch from the headland as orcas hunt sperm whales to the death, and boats sometimes disappear for no apparent reason.
It's a restless place, and there is a very good reason for it: The region sits where two tectonic plates rub shoulders, providing an uplifting holiday destination in more ways than one.
On land, the Kaikoura Ranges are rising by about 10mm a year, buckling the limestone cliffs which circle Kaikoura village.
"They look like my ripple-soled shoes," said an American geologist, pressing hard for a closer look while attempting not to disturb a drowsy fur seal at rest on a stone ledge less than two metres away.
There is an even greater upheaval offshore. The mighty forces which have shaped this land have forged an underwater chasm as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US, and it is steeped in mystery and legend.
There is so much food sucked into it by competing currents that it has made Kaikoura the world's only permanent whale-feeding ground, and marine life is so abundant that dolphins and seals are counted in their thousands.
Travellers and scientists meet along a whale superhighway which attracts humpback, minke, pilot whales and southern right whales, as well as the gentle sperm whales and the killer orcas.
Hydrophones on the boats allow visitors to eavesdrop on the procession below. The Smithsonian Institution and The National Geographic Society searched unsuccessfully for the giant squid in 1997. The ocean floor was too deep and too dark to track the monsters successfully, but scientists haven't given up -- another expedition is being planned.
Continued Travel 4
From beasts of the deep to the Godzome
From Travel 1
Swimming is not encouraged off the Kaikoura coastline, British expat Andy Pike says in grand understatement, although some bravehearts don scuba gear and feed sharks from a wire cage.
There are wild rips, and Kaikoura Canyon is,...