The Whale Watchers

The boat left the harbor in Kaikoura at seven in the morning, and within ten minutes Andrea was holding on to her seat with both hands. She had come all the way from Buenos Aires to see a whale, but the sea was rough and gray, and the wind was throwing cold water over the side of the boat.

Their guide, a tall man called Hemi, walked calmly between the seats as if the sea were perfectly flat. "Don't worry," he told the passengers. "If you feel sick, look at the mountains. If you look at the water, you'll feel worse." Behind the town, snowy mountains rose straight out of the sea. Andrea looked at them and felt a little better.

Hemi explained why Kaikoura is so special. Not far from the coast, the sea floor drops into a deep canyon, where sperm whales come to find food. "They dive for up to an hour," he said, "and then they come up to breathe for about ten minutes. When a whale is ready to dive again, it lifts its tail out of the water. If you see the tail, take your photo quickly, because that's the last thing you'll see."

Andrea moved closer to him. "Will we see one today?" she asked. Hemi looked at the waves and didn't smile. "Honestly? Unless the sea calms down, we won't see anything. When the water is this rough, it's very hard to spot a whale. We'll try for another hour. If we don't find one, we'll go back and you'll get most of your money back."

Every few minutes, Hemi put a special microphone into the water and listened with headphones. "Sperm whales make clicking sounds when they hunt," he explained. "If they're down there, I'll hear them." For forty minutes, he heard nothing. Andrea saw albatrosses and a group of dolphins that jumped next to the boat, but no whale. Little by little, however, the wind dropped and the waves got smaller.

Then Hemi pressed the headphones against his ears and raised his hand. "Clicks. Very close." The captain turned the boat, and everyone went quiet. Suddenly, about a hundred meters away, a cloud of white mist shot up from the water. "There!" someone shouted. A long dark back, like a floating rock, lay on the surface.

For ten minutes, the whale stayed there, breathing slowly, while the passengers took hundreds of photos. Andrea didn't take any. She just watched. Then the whale arched its back, and its enormous tail rose out of the water, shining in the sun that had finally come out. A second later, it was gone.

On the way back, Hemi sat down next to her. "You were lucky today," he said. Andrea smiled. "If I come back next year, will you take me out again?" "Of course," Hemi answered. "But I won't promise you a whale. Nobody can promise that. The sea decides."