In the Hollywood film 'It's A Wonderful Life,' often listed among the best films, Jimmy Stewart mentions that three of the most exciting sounds in the world are a train whistle, an airplane engine, and an anchor chain. In that era, they all heralded the beginning of a wonderful journey!

But here, we want to add a fourth one:

The sound of a whale breathing and puffing!

Whales are mysterious, huge, intelligent, and resilient mammals, and going out to sea to see these behemoths in person is a bucket list item for many people.

Whale watching is possible in many places around the world, but nowhere offers as many whale species year-round as New Zealand.

In New Zealand, if you want to go whale watching, you can choose to participate in whale-watching activities in Auckland on the North Island or Kaikoura on the South Island. However, every winter, whale migration watching activities are also operated in the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand.

Humpback whales are a migratory species, living in cool high-latitude waters in the summer and traveling to tropical and subtropical waters to mate and reproduce in the winter. May to August every year is the best time to watch the annual humpback whale migration through Cook Strait.

When humpback whales migrate north through New Zealand, they take two routes: a large group takes the east coast of New Zealand, and another group passes through the Cook Strait to the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. When migrating south, humpback whales mainly travel along the west coast of New Zealand, rarely along the east coast or through the Cook Strait.

So, unfortunately, many years ago Tory Channel in Cook Strait became the southernmost whaling site in the world.

Fortunately, after 1964, New Zealand banned all whaling, and the whaling stations of that year became historical relics. The whaling practitioners at that time turned into employees of the New Zealand Department of Environmental Protection, engaged in whale observation and protection work all year round.

Since last year, Picton has started offering group tours to watch migrating whales.

Depart from Picton and travel through the beautiful Queen Charlotte Sound to Tory Channel, seeing a variety of marine wildlife along the way, and finally arrive at Perano Whaling Station - New Zealand's only restored whaling station.

Here you can see and touch real machines that were used to hunt whales. And learn about the history of the whaling station. Understand how the whaling workers worked at that time, how they lived with their families in this beautiful but isolated place, how the former killer whales became an organization to protect whales, and conducted research on whale migration with the New Zealand Department of Environmental Protection for a long time ten years.

This is the best place to watch migrating whales during winter. Although it was once a cruel whaling site, now the protected whales have returned to their former migration routes.