NZ fur seals

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Had a long drive but it was sunny and really quite nice most the way. On the first day in Kaikoura we took a tiny boat out to where the NZ fur seals live and actually got to swim with them in their natural environment. It was very cool. When they jump in the water I swam over to them and even swam circles with one and played chase. The following day we took out a kayak to the south bay. We went round the south point and found another area where the seals live. We ended up seeing many seals on the rocks/coast and several in the water playing around. On our way back to the beach to take the kayak out of the water we came across three seals all in the water together. Two of them were young and very playful. They were having a great time playing together and then they started chasing our kayak. They swam all around us and played, they were so fun to be around!

Kaikoura is a peninsula that jets out to the east of the island. No road goes all around the peninsula but there is a hiking track that follows the ridgeline. We hiked from the north end around to south bay on the ridge and since it was low tide, we hiked down along the coast for the route back. On the walk along the coast we have to pass two seal colonies. The fur seals are generally playful animals, but become territorial on land so the NZ govt has signs up saying to stay 10 meters from any seal on land. This posed to be challenging on our walk and we nearly walked right into a sleeping seal on a few occasions. We stayed quiet and managed not to piss any off.

Our first few nights in Kaikoura we spent in a cottage right outside town. Our last two nights we moved into a luxury treehouse. This place is freaking awesome! The shower is a big window looking out over sheep and trees, there is a two person spa tub, and a gigantic, super comfy bed. Right now I am sitting by the fireplace looking out into the mountains. I am so glad we planned for this to be the mellow portion of the trip because it is really hard to leave the house. We went to the lodge this morning for breakfast then back up here to crawl in bed. I did leave the house this afternoon…went to a lavender farm. The gardens were beautiful. Since they extract the lavender oil in their own stillery everything smelled fabulous. Followed the lavender farm with lunch and wine tasting at the Kaikoura Winery and we’re back at the treehouse to relax before dinner at the lodge.

Tomorrow we take the ferry back across to Wellington to wrap up our trip.

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