'I’ll never be the same': Blogger heartbroken after whale stranding

Saturday night was the worst night of my entire life,  writes Wanaka blogger Liz Carlson.

• Decision to euthanise whales 'heart-breaking'

50kms into a 5 day tramp on the remote west coast of Stewart Island, we were wandering back to our camp at at sunset and came across hundreds of pilot whales becoming beached in the low surf.

When we realised the horror of what we were seeing, we dropped everything and ran straight into the water.

Desperately we grabbed their tails and pushed and yelled, before we got hammered by them thrashing around.

It was useless - they were so big and heavy and the realisation we could do nothing to save them was the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced.

We were in a place with no people, no service, no help. Julian was a champion and took off running at 8.30pm in his wet sandy clothes and boots almost 15 kilometres back to a base hut up the bay where we knew there were Department of Conservation rangers working who would have a radio.

He made it in 1.5 hours to raise the alarm, and I stayed with the whales til dark, sitting with them, dragging the smallest baby back in the water every few minutes before it would rebeach itself, and throwing water over the drier whales until my hands were numb from the water and wind.

I’ll never forget their cries, the way they watched me as I sat with them in the water, how they desperately tried to swim but their weight only dug them deeper into the sands.

My heart completely broke.

When the realisation there was no hope, it was almost dark, high tide was in the middle of the night and knowing this was one of the most remote places in New Zealand, I knew they would inevitable die.

I sank to my knees in the sand screaming in frustration and crying, with the sound of dozens of dying whales behind me, utterly alone.

It would take close to 1000 people to save them, more than double the whole population of Rakiura.

The only positive bit was thanks to us alerting everyone, they were able to euthanize them shortly afterwards, and my heart hurts for the man who had that horrific job, and would have done anything to save them too.

Otherwise it would have likely been days before anyone even knew the whales were there and a very long painful slow death for them all.

I’ll never be the same after this.

Liz Carlson, lives in Wanaka and writes a travel blog called Young Adventuress and her Instagram can be viewed here.