Whale in Wellington

A friend in Island Bay emailed in obvious excitement -- a "real" whale was coasting by his house.

"It was about 2 car lengths long, and the right fin of it's tail was at least 5 metres long," he said.

They didn't measure whales like that in the old days.

And, despite what looks like a long dorsal fin out there, it is not an orca.  It's a humpback, evidently strayed from his (or her) pod on the migration route through the Tasman Sea to Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga.

The Dominion Post has more.

A humpback whale has been spotted near Island Bay.

Island Bay Marine Education Centre discovery programme manager Julian Hodge said the whale had been at the surface for about 15 minutes before diving under water again, about 10am. 

It had just returned to the surface and was doing tail flips.

It was about 80 metres off the coast, near Princess Bay.

Apparently, it is cavorting with surf boards and dive boats.

That didn't happen in the old days, either.