Advertisement
Published: April 25th 2007
Kaikoura Dolphins So Magic Stu took us from sunny Tekapo up the east coast to Christchurch. En route, Stu had a call telling him that one of the other backpacker buses (Kiwi Experience AKA the bogey bus) had plummeted 35m over the edge of a cliff between the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers with 45 people on board. It wasn't until the 6pm news that night we finally heard that incredibly the most serious injuries had been broken arms. So after a long stomach churning days there were massive sighs of relief all round.
At first the weather in Christchurch was a little bit too much England (with the exception of the heatwave you seem to be having at the moment) but it didn't stop us heading to the beach hoping to get some surf action. Although the weather improved dramatically, the surf didn't - flat, flat, flat.
So we had a stroll around the botanical gardens and Cathedral Square and then succumbed to the Regent cinema with it's bargain backpacker rates!
We then headed to Kaikoura with our driver, Magic Mike. We arrived and jumped straight on a boat to go whale watching - during the afternoon we
Christchurch
Cathedral Square. We don't know why it's called this.saw 3 Sperm Whales as they came to the surface for air and eventually lifted their tails and dived back down 800m to find something else to eat! It was a great experience but slightly frustrating as so much of the whales are out of sight under the surface. When we got back to our hostel we saw Mike, who'd just got back from a fishing trip with fellow backpacker, Lucy, and they'd caught an enormous haul of Sea Perch, Blue Cod and a Crayfish (Kaikoura means something like 'plenty of crayfish to eat'). They invited us to join them for a feast of fresh fish, bread, salad and beer in the 'secret' part of the hostel - sweet as! The fish was piled high and tasted incredible and as we were staying another night we inherited the leftovers!
Backpacking in style!
PS - Have a look at the video of the dolphins!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0535s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
