Blogs from Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

The whales are fantastic, but the dolphins steal the show. Keep you're eyes peeled for one show off dolphin, doing acrobatic flips in the air!!... read more

18th April ’12 Kaikora to Picton The stars of today were the seal pups that we came across at the Ohau Stream waterfall walk just outside of Kaikura. We would have just driven past this ordinarily as it was just a lay- by round a sharp bend with a sign to a waterfall, but we had stopped on the other side of the bend at another lay by to have one last attempt at spotting whales. While there we saw a couple of large seals on the rocks and Howard started talking to this lady who told us about the baby seals on the waterfall walk. So going slowly round the bend with eyes peeled we found the layby car park and stopped. There was a sign explaining how the fur seals used this stream and ... read more

We had a brilliant week in Kaikoura, a place with a rich sea life, whales, dolphins, seals and sea food! There is a Kaikoura range (mountains around 2000m) which we challenged as well. "Kai" means "food" and "Koura" is "crayfish" in Maori language. The paradise for a fisherman! On the way to Kaikoura, we stopped in Conway Flat & Claverley where Lucas caught a massive fish from the beach by a beautiful sunset. We couldn't identify the fish but it was kind of ugly. He let it go and we found out the next day that it was the elephant fish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callorhinchidae I would definitely recommend visiting Goose Bay which has got couple of campsites right on the beach from where you can watch the sea life. You can go collect Paua or dive for crayfish. ... read more

Travelled from the Abel Tasman via St Arnaud and the Wiarau Valley to Kaikoura. Very scenic in parts (Janet is getting good and taking shots on the move) East coast route followed the coast and railway line. Stopped off to watch seals playing in the water and basking on the beach.... read more

Day 6 Interisland ferry to Picton- was a lovely crossing. It's always windy in Wellington. I wouldn't like to fly in, the runways a tiny strip with sea on both sides and because there are mountains on both sides of Wellington there is a constant wind tunnel going on. Can imagine the ferry must be choppy most days, but today beautiful!! We crossed the twenty odd miles in 3 hours. It takes so long because of the dangerous channels and many islands in the Marlborough sounds. The bus took us directly to a vineyard in Blenheim where we sampled some sauvignon, Riesling and Chardonnay, then bought some to drink with our (massive( green lipped mussels that night, cooked on the barbecue. Looking forward to trying the smoked version later. Then we headed to Hamner Springs to ... read more

January 8, 2012 by Craig I will never come back to the South Island of NZ again.......because we have just enjoyed two weeks of it in absolute sunny splendor, and I seriously doubt that luck would favour that again. While the South island basked in sunshine, the North was miserable and rainy the whole time that we were here. We did not go to the North island, thankfully, but apparently the place is drenched and most places had to cancel NYE events (hopefully will be sunny for you in Feb-March, Thomas, which is the best time to travel in North island). The last part of the trip involved travel from Nelson in the North around to Kaikoura back on the East coast and so down to Christchurch - where we started. While in Nelson, we drove ... read more

Another driving day, as we drove from Golden Bay in the north of the South Island to Kaikoura on the east coast. We passed through very varied scenery - beaches and mountains and vineyards and coastal cliffs. We stopped for lunch at 'The Mussel Pot' in Havelock for some HUGE green lipped mussels which are the speciality of the town - Paul had his grilled with cheese and bacon, whereas mine were boiled in garlic and white wine. And then on to Kaikoura, famous for its wildlife. We saw some seals basking in the sunshine this afternoon and have booked a whale watching trip for tomorrow. You can also pay to swim with sharks if the mood takes you. Weather is still sunny - car's thermometer got to 26 degrees C today, but looks like tomorrow ... read more