Kaikoura, Whale Watching and the mad cows

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4th June 2009

We started the day with a long walk to find a fur seal colony that live around the Kaikoura Peninsula. Unlucky timing meant that we arrived at the same time as a tour group. This group contained some "special" people who seemed to think that they were looking at animals in a zoo who would perform tricks for them rather than looking at wild animals in their natural environment. As we waited around for this tour group to leave, we started our walk around the rest of the peninsula a little late. The walk took us over limestone cliffs with great views of the mountains to one side of us and a clear look to the ocean on the other side. As we neared the bottom of the cliffs the sun was about to set so unfortunately we had to walk the way back in increasing darkness. This was going well as we had brought a torch until we reached a field full of cows. Apparently they don't appreciate being sneaked up on in the dark and like it even less when you walk past their field. As we walked past them they started mooing in a very strange way and started to herd together ready to stampede. Ready to poo our pants we wanted to run but thought that sudden movements may panic them more so continued slowly but nervously to the end. Thankfully we made it back to Kaikoura alive, but with a new phobia.

5th June 2009

Today was a good day, we went whale watching. First though we had to find the whales and the boat we were on sped around the bay, following the sonar system in hope that we would catch one on the surface. It was all very exciting with the anticipation of the chase. This day we must have hit the jackpot as we were lucky enough to see 5 whales in all, even managing to see the rare sight of one breaching the water after a deep sea dive. See the photos and the video for what we saw of these amazing animals. After a great morning we had a lazy lunch back at the campsite. The woman who ran the campsite informed us of a great thing to do in the afternoon at Ohau Falls. Mother seals left their baby seals to play in the safety of the waterfall whilst they were out hunting. We went to investigate and it was amazing. There were loads of small seals playing in the pool underneath the pool, jumping in and out of the water and looking bemused at the strange creatures watching them from the side. We stayed for quite a while fascinated at felt very lucky that we got to see another ace sight.

6th June 2009

Before we started our journey to our final destination, Christchurch, we decided to take on one last challenge; climbing Mount Fyffe from the bottom all the way to the summit at 1500m. The walk started off on boring tarmac road with trees surrounding us which we found a little dull. At 500m altitude the views started to open up and we had a great sight of the Kaikoura Peninsula. After 2 hours walking we had reached the climbers hut where we were originally going to stop and turn around. However we feeling good we decided to continue to the summit. This part of the walk was a little tougher with ankle deep snow becoming knee deep snow the further we went up. When we reached the top we took a picture of us both at the summit and decided to head back down as clouds were beginning to role in. As we descended the clouds continued to get thicker and by the time we reached 750m altitude it was as if there was no summit. We reached Cyril just in time because as we left the car park the mountain had completely disappeared and the rain had started. In the warm comfort of Cyril's embrace we made our way to Christchurch.

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