In Search of Ambergris

So, I'm writing a book. I'm not sure how it happened. I've always assumed I'd write a book at some point. And here I am in the middle of one, and under contract with Harper Collins Australia. My book is about ambergris, which is a fancy French word for whale poo. Actually, as you'll learn if you ever read my book, it's poo and a whole lot more.

Ambergris is expelled by sperm whales only, and probably by only one percent of them. It comes out sticky and black and fecal and fairly unpleasant. But then it floats. It floats. And floats. And floats. Years pass. Decades. The ambergris changes, molecule by molecule. Photo-oxidized by sunlight and altered by seawater, it travels in vast loops, carried by slow and irresistible ocean currents. And then it washes up somewhere. By then, it is a completely different thing: a fragrant gray, waxy lump, covered with a resinous rind.

Anyway, my book is about finding some, and it'll be published by Harper Collins in Australia and New Zealand in September 2011. A long way away. Last month, we visited Stewart Island in search of ambergris. A rugged, windswept and isolated place, Stewart Island sits in the southern seas, 20-miles south of New Zealand's south island. Traditionally rainy and stormy, we enjoyed sunny weather for the 5-days we were there. I even took a flight in a tiny single-engine Cessna over to the west coast beaches, where people find ambergris all the time. I didn't find any. But the search was worth it!