heli-explore

we saw 4 different whales including a mother and calf, we were able to see the baby feed and the mother dive down displaying her huge tail (Bram got as excited as us at this point, its apparently rare for blue whales to dive deep and show their tails) we also saw a pod of dolphins and some eagles flying overland, as well as some wonderful scenery. Heli-explore has an enthusiastic very knowledgeable guide who seemed as happy to be in the air as we did. Organising the trip was painless, and over all can’t fault it.

Blue whales are the biggest creatures that have ever lived, They are sadly very rare. Normally they live in the wide oceans and are therefore out of sight to all but the lucky few. However there are a number of places where they can be seen close to land notably the St Lawrence River, the Sea of Cortez in Mexico , the southern tip of Sri Lanka and off Portland, Victoria.We took a trip from Portland airport on a helicopter flight. We had enquired about boats but the Southern Ocean can be quite rough and, in anything but a flat calm, blue whales are actually quite difficult to see (according to various TV reports we had seen). Even then they are so big that you never see all of the animal, only the part that is above water at any one time. So we opted for a helicopter ride. This turned out to be a huge success.The company we chose to go with (Heliexplore) were highly professional, meticulously safety conscious, but above all were determined that we should see blue whales.The helicopter was a four seater with excellent visibility from all seats. We were both equipped with noise-reducing earphones and there was a continuing dialogue in the aircraft about what was going on and what we were seeing.After an explanation of the Bonney upwelling (which is the reason why the whales come so close to shore) and a safety talk we were airborne. Within minutes of leaving the airport we were over the Southern Ocean, flying at about 1500ft, and seeing seals, dolphins and (probably !) manta rays but not blue whales. Clearly finding them is not that easy ! We were running out of time when about a mile away we saw the vivid turqoise cigar shape of a submerged big blue clearly outlined against the dark of the ocean! It surfaced, blew and then dived down again to feed. We circled, waiting for it to re-appear, but then some distance away we saw two more blue whales, this time one behind the other, leaving a trail of excrement -a sure sign that they were feeding! Both showed that extraordinary electric turquoise whilst under the water but steel grey when surfacing.To add icing to our cake we saw a group of seabirds diving on a bait ball as we headed back.This was not a cheap trip but was quite outstanding and can be recommended unreservedly. I've never been on a helicopter so that was a first. But to be finding and seeing these amazing animals (thanks to the persistence of our pilot) was just fantastic. Something I have always wanted to do and was so much better than I could have imagined.