Australia, New Zealand and several South Pacific islands have a wide range of whale and dolphin watching opportunities. In particular, Australia has some of the most outstanding land-based whale watching sites in the world, while New Zealand has Kaikoura, which is probably more strongly identified with whales and dolphins than any other town.

The main large whale species are humpback, southern right and sperm whales, but many others are encountered from time to time, as well as a great variety of dolphins and other small cetaceans. Blue whales and other relative rarities have been appearing more frequently in the region in recent years.

Here are some whale and dolphin species you might see:

East Coast Australia - humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, Risso's dolphins
Western Australia - humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins
Southern Australia - southern right whales, bottlenose dolphins
New Zealand - sperm whales, long-finned pilot whales, orcas/killer whales, dusky dolphins, Hector's dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, Tasman beaked whales
Tonga - humpback whales, short-finned pilot whales, long-snouted spinner dolphins
Fiji - long-snouted spinner dolphins