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Published: November 22nd 2022
1. Sun and Pacific
After leaving Ward, it was good to have Sun and Sea backWhat a difference a day makes (and a decent night’s sleep!)
After what felt like a very long day yesterday, we had a nice quiet night in our motel room and managed to get a good nights sleep. We awoke today feeling very refreshed and with the added bonus of sunshine peeking in the curtains, which made a pleasant change from the endless rain we had yesterday!
As we left the motel, the owners mentioned the drive down the coast was lovely, and specifically recommended a bay about an hour away where you could see the seals. Armed with this knowledge, we jumped in the car, sunglasses on, windows down and set off on our way.
The drive down to Christchurch was about 3.5hrs according to the sat nav, but we probably took 3hrs to do about a third of the trip! The views were breathtaking all along the coast road, such a change from yesterday.
We spotted the recommended Ohao Bay so pulled in for a look, this was without doubt the highlight of the day. They have it set out with a walkway high above the rocky beach where the seals are. There were so
2. Mororimu Totem
Spotted this at the side of the road so had to investigate many seals, small baby seals all the way up to massive males. The adults were basking in the sunshine, the younger ones were playing chase around the rocks and diving into the ocean. There were a lot of squabbles over the best rock positions, squawking birds, the sound of waves crashing into the rocks – it was absolutely amazing.
It was hard to tear ourselves away, but we needn’t have worried, all along that stretch of coast you could see seals on rocks and swimming around in the water. Our next stop was Kaikoura, which was shown on the map as also having a seal colony. What wasn’t mentioned was the vast array of shops, bars, restaurants and motels lining the road to it. If we had more time, I’ve no doubt this would’ve been a great place to stay the night.
As it is, we only had time for a quick stroll on the beach, which was flattish rocks rather than sand. We walked out to where it met the sea, being careful when reaching where each plate of rock met another – which was just as well as we almost stumbled upon a large male seal!
3. HIlls and Blue Sky, Mororimu
Strange how the clouds match the hills It was great to be able to see them from ground level, we obviously kept a safe distance so as not to disturb them but you could get much closer here and see them swimming in the sea just off the rocks.
After this, the road took us inland, eventually passing loads more grape vines. They look much nicer in the sunshine! Most of our journey today followed the train tracks, it’s nothing like in the UK, here they run the tracks literally next to the road – no barriers, just relying on people’s common sense not to cross them when a train is coming, imagine that!
We passed quite a few fields with deer in them today too, thought it would be good to get a photo of them as we’d mentioned them a couple of times and it’s not something you see everyday at home. We found a field where they were relatively close to the road so pulled over, they instantly stopped what they were doing and all stared at the car! Roy got out to take a picture but spotted a truck coming along the road, he has a thing for trucks….. so instead
4. Seals at Ohau
One of the bigger seals on the rocks at Ohau of pointing the camera at the deer, he pointed it at the truck earning a couple of friendly toots (very loud ones!) from the driver. Unfortunately, the deer didn’t take kindly to this commotion and started to back away quickly from the perfect photo position they were in when we pulled up!
We finally reached Christchurch at around 3:30pm, it seemed so built up and busy compared to the places we’ve been for the past week or so. Our motel is probably about a 10-15min walk into the central area of Christchurch so we had a walk towards to park to get the lay of the land.
Passing a nice looking bar/restaurant (a place called - Carlton) we abandoned our walk and decided a beer and dinner were more of a priority. We have the whole day in Christchurch tomorrow so will explore the area then.
We also realised as we entered that our motel key had a keyring attached with a barcode to give us 10% off in there, bonus! This place is really interesting, it used to be the Carlton Hotel many, many years ago, and also the place for cattle auctions. There’s memorabilia, posters
5. Seals at Ohau
This one had just been for a swim and photo’s of its past incarnations all over the walls in the bar area giving you plenty to look at while enjoying a nice cold beer. It’s also now a lovely steakhouse, so we had a delicious dinner then headed back to the motel to get some rest before our day of exploring tomorrow.
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