A Whale's Tale

Television (Full Length) – 1992

It's quite ironic to drive past these great pots that they used to boil their blubber up for oil, and now we're watching them.
– Ngāti Kuri kaumatua Bill Solomon on the sea change in attitudes to whales in Kaikōura

Our planet's in real trouble. The only way we are going to save it is by having people be able to come and go out and experience nature, not in a zoo or a concrete pool, but actually get out and experience it...
– Marine educator and author Barbara Todd

It was the first time in my life I had a very close association with the Māori people ... I think, like many middle age Pākehās, we didn't have a close association, and I'd never been on a marae before...
– Retired merchant banker Des Snelly on becoming involved with Ngāti Kuri and the Whale Watch venture

I took out a group of deaf people and it was just really their faces ... the expressions on their faces when they've seen the whale which blew me away. We specially manoeuvred the vessel so they could feel the spray, the blow of the whale on their faces and, in fact, a lot of them looked quite tearful. I looked quite tearful myself...
– Skipper Lorraine Hawke on the effect the whales have on spectators