This is very good, and the title a good pun.
A conventional middle class girl chooses the wrong partner, and escapes from London to New Zealand, to save the whales. But on arrival, the apocalypse has happened and most of the world as far as one can tell has been destroyed in a nuclear conflict. She and a local New Zealand photographer shelter, improbably, in the mouth of a stranded beached blue whale.
The chapters are cleverly written alternatively, so 1) New Zealand, 2) London etc. The couple, as they become, cohabit, produce two children but never move from their beach location other than to forage for food both natural and from destroyed shops in the locality.
Eventually, but about 20 years later, they both die, probably of radiation poisoning and their daughters set off in their fishing boat, accompanied by some whale, in search of civilisation if it remains.
Their beach life is beautifully written, reminded me of The Tree of Man by Patrick White, although Ruth & Nik never really go anywhere. The London bit was, for me, less interesting although the two plot strands are blended together cleverly.
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