A lovely little town called Kaikoura

Kaikoura 

We left Te Anau early on the 16th February and we had a two-hour drive to get to Queenstown airport.  We then had to get a plane to Christchurch airport followed by another two-hour drive to Kaikoura, which took three-hours due to the earthquake damage. To say we were a bit tired when we arrived is an under statement.

 Kaikoura is famous for whale watching. Now, please don't laugh, but as you may have discovered I am not that good on water, so when tony said this:

Tony “I hope the weather is good when we do the whale watching” 

Me: “Me too, I don't want to sit on the cliff trying to see a whale and its raining”

Tony: “On a cliff, no we are on a boat”

Me: “What, I thought it was a cliff”

Tony: “Er, no, how can we see these enormous sperm whales off a cliff”

Me: “I did in South Africa”

Tony: “Well, we are in New Zealand and its a boat’

Me: “It had better be a calm day, otherwise you are on your own!”

I had a mini panic attack, and kept saying to myself it will fun, It will be OK, you are seeing an amazing mammal, come on girl get a grip.

Well, the following day after arriving in Kaikoura we got up at the crack of dawn (again) and went to the whale watching centre. We walked in and I looked up at the notice board and it said “Todays trip is off due to bad weather”. Inside I did a bit of a dance, but did attempt a look of disappointment. “Oh dash it Tony” I said, they’ve only gone and cancelled the trip.  As a consolation I bought Tony this postcard. Well, at least he can say he did see a whale in Kaikoura even if it was on a card.

If only the weather was better 

Fortunately Tony did get over the disappointment of not doing a boat trip, especially since we spent the following day exploring the beach. Now, this beach is home to many seals and there are signs  clearly saying "don't go near the seals or attempt to touch them”.

So, it always amazes me what people will do and don't do. As mentioned there are signs on the beach saying  “don't go near the seals or attempt to touch them”. So, what do people do, go too close and then wonder why they get attacked. 

Don’t touch the seals they don’t like it!

Whilst I was there I did a bit of plonking, to the not so well averse is photography speak, its a method of lying prostrate on the floor to take the photo. I wanted to get this shot of the cormorant, he did have his wings outstretched and the minute I got on the floor (this took a while, cause I am not as nimble as I use to be) he decided his armpits were cold and put his wings down!

Nah, its a bit cold with me wings outstretched 

 Apparently, doing this plonking exercise I became a source of entertainment for some people. I had one chap come up to me, after I slowly got up, to let me know he tends to photograph people photographing objects! He was quite amused to tell me that he normally just sees seals lying down on the rocks, now he can say he also sees humans! I can see the comments already, “Yeah mate, but which one is the seal”. Yes there is a plonking picture of me taken by Tony, but I refused to have it on here..... so here is a much nicer picture of an obliging spotted shag.

After spending most of the afternoon cormorants and seal watching we decided to go for a walk. We could not believe our eyes when we spotted a penguin. We made our way down to the quiet area of the beach and gently made our way towards him. Well, it was only another Fiordland Crested Penguin that was snoozing near the sea. Wow, what were the chances of seeing another one. That, I have to say made up for the cancelled whaling trip.

Snooze time 

Now, its not a holiday without an ice cream and we discovered the best ice cream shop - “Poppy’s homemade ice cream” and it was to die for. So delicious and sadly I didn't take a photo, because it was too nice. But here is one that the lovely shop has posted. I so miss that shop. 

(c) Poppys Homemade Ice-cream

Kaikoura is a lovely town and had done it really tough with the earthquake. I spotted this beautiful art deco theatre and fortunately the damage was minimal, but at the moment not safe to go into. There are other older buildings that ended up with some structural damage, but the worst was the railway line tunnel that became so badly damaged no trains can get into and out of the town. 

Lovely little Art Deco theatre 

It’s clear they have suffered a loss of tourism because of it, but they are amazing and resilient. It’s one place we both agree we would definitely come back to.

To see all pictures click here