Frolicking whale halts NZ fireworks display

A rare visiting whale in Wellington Harbor has won hearts in the New Zealand capital but forced officials to cancel the city’s annual fireworks display.

The southern right whale appeared in the harbor on Wednesday and has delighted onlookers as it breaches and blows water spouts a short distance from office buildings.

Whales regularly migrate along the North Island coast near Wellington but do not usually venture into the harbor.

The city’s acting mayor Jill Day said the presence of the giant marine mammal meant a fireworks display scheduled for Saturday could not go ahead.

She said experts had advised the pyrotechnics, to mark the Maori new year celebration Matariki, could make the whale behave unpredictably.

Day said there was strong public support for postponing the fireworks for a week.

“Wellingtonians have fallen in love with this whale, this taonga (treasure), and they’ve been telling us they don’t want anything untoward to happen to it,” she said.