The annual Blessing of the Animals service at St. Peter's Anglican Church was delightfully chaotic. Human voices rose up in song alongside dog voices and cat voices.

At St Peter’s Anglican Church in Kaikōura, we have been privileged to help some of our local endangered birds this autumn. Kaikōura is home to the endangered Hutton’s Shearwater / Kaikōura tītī (Puffinus huttoni). Crash landings or ‘fallout’ of Hutton’s Shearwaters in the Kaikōura township is frequent, as the fledglings find their way to the sea at night. St Peter’s parishioners take an active role in patrolling for and rescuing the birds at night throughout this season.

At St. Peter's Anglican in Kaikōura we had our Blessing of the Animals service on Sunday. In addition to blessing the nine dogs and one cat present (and the domestic animals not present) we blessed, at a distance, the wild animals that call Kaikōura home, including the dotterels/tūturiwhatu, hutton's shearwaters/tītī, little blue penguins/kororā, and hector's dolphins.

St. Peter's Anglican Church in Kaikōura are volunteering with and financially supporting the work of Kaikōura Ocean Research Institute (KORI). For six weeks (early June-mid-July, 2021), some parishioners are also helping with the Great Kaikōura Whale Count. Volunteers are stationed on a hill on the peninsula to spot whales passing by, especially humpbacks on their northern migration. The hope is that, over time, we'll get a baseline of data regarding movements and behaviour of the migrating humpbacks that can inform future conservation decisions.