As stated before Kaikoura is, bar a brief amount of time with family in the Waikanae and surrounding areas and a couple of nights in Wellington and Auckland, the unofficial ending to our NZ trip- though don’t worry we won’t stop writing about our NZ journeys quite yet.
On arrival in Kaikoura we stopped off for a quick breakfast, unfortunately our early start didn’t give us time for anything in Christchurch. We chose the first place we stumbled upon; the Crayfish restaurant, two fry ups later- well one and one vegetarian option, I have to say we weren’t impressed at all but the staff were undeniably friendly. Anyway with that hiccup out of the way we were looking forward to our stay in Kaikoura- a very unique place and amongst very few places in the world where you can surf and ski on the same day. One of my pointless facts but I read the only other places are in Scotland, France, Italy and another one in New Zealand, though you’d probably be better not to quote me on that one.
Having arrived early we took advantage of this rare situation and set out on a walk to the seal colony, the walk takes about 20 - 30 minutes from the centre of town and it’s definitely a must do, especially if you have a perfect day like we did. The area is constantly frequented by rather smelly fur seals sleeping on the beach; and in other much stranger areas.
After some time soaking up the views and laughing at the seals we began the 2 hour walk which loops around the peninsular into a small township, which I believe was called South Bay. From here you can take a short bush walk which leads you back to the centre of Kaikoura- or in our case right back at our hostel. This walk was easily one of our favourite walks across the whole of New Zealand and indisputably beautiful and gave Jen chance to take some wonderful photographs (as she has across the whole trip so far).
From our starting point in the centre of Kaikoura and back took us approximately 4 ½ hours, taking into account plenty of time exploring some of the bays along the walk, watching the seals, taking in some of the breathtaking views and of course some time to refuel our bodies- if you don’t do anything else in Kaikoura make sure you do this.
Day two was planned around an activity we had been looking forward to for sometime- whale watching. Unfortunately it was probably the one thing that I (Jen less so) regret spending the large amount of money that we did. However, before I hit on the negatives I’ll talk about the positives. We did get to see a sperm whale first and foremost, though it was a brief viewing and I didn’t really get many photos or many good ones I should say (again I’ll explain later).
The picture above is the whale’s fin before it’s descent. Other than that we also got to see a fully grown Wandering Albatross, we didn’t manage to get a photo but it’s wingspan was unbelievable. Other than the marine life we saw, I only have positives to say about the tour itself- bombarding you with interesting information about the area and the many different inhabitants. Now unfortunately for the reason I regret doing the trip so much; first of all we may have seen a whale but it was VERY brief and secondly and more to the point- Jen has a habit of feeling sea sick or having motion sickness and the swell was rough to say the least which did leave her feeling ill. However for some reason my body decided, and for the first time ever, it was going to get sea sick, to the point where I had to sleep for almost the entire trip. We came off the trip feeling very deflated and vowing never to do an excursion of that kind ever again- if you’re reading this and thinking of doing it please don’t be put off with my views, they do have a 98% success rate of seeing whales and from what I hear they regularly see more than the single whale. I think in hindsight we would have considered more the Wings over Whales (small plane) option as opposed to the boat- however they both have their pros and cons.
Our last late afternoon/evening was spent strolling around the beach and local area, again the weather really was fantastic for us- a sharp contrast from what we had in Christchurch. Just as the weather was perfect so was our time in Kaikoura and really the icing on the cake for us. As our last ‘new’ place in NZ we couldn’t have wanted more.
I have a friend who spent one hell of a lot more to do the Wings over Whales and didn't see a single one! You win some you loose some :) Most of the time the whales rest on the surface before sounding, they still look like large logs and not very interesting either. But if it's on your "bucket list" then you have to do it.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading your blog.
Cheers
Zappers