New Zealand Part 14 - Picton & Kaikoura

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Windy roads, whales and freedom camping again!!!

With getting off the ferry very late, Nath and I pulled ourselves together just long enough to get to the DOC campsite. It was along a windy road that resembled your lower intestine, and driving it tired in the dark and for the first time, meant that it wasn’t the easiest drive. Nath struggled to see round right hand bends because the window frame was always in his way and the corners were so tight the head lights were pretty useless, so on occasion we came very close to hitting the ditch on the left hand side. I’d rather that though than the other side, which when we saw in the light of day was a cliffs edge that would have made us very nervous had we known and mince meat had we gone over. After 13km , but what seemed like hours we finally found the camp site in the pitch black and got ourselves into a pitch and went straight to bed……….

Next morning was like Christmas day, such a surprise scene to wake up to, rolling mountains covered in vegetation, glistening water and a beach and uncannily in the darkness we had picked a bloody good spot. It was so nice to not only lie in but be woken to this kind of view. There were also like a million ducks and their ducklings on this site, which van by van made their way around to the opening doors to ask for food. I of course obliged and let them have some of the rice crispies that Kia Ora had loved so much. Oh by the way ducks beaks hurt if your not expecting it, not the baby ones but the mumma ones can take the food quite hard if your not concentrating and staring at the babies. Finally after a lovely hot shower we fannied around as usual clearing out the van and re stocking everything etc and having a think about what we were gonna do next. I’d given a lot of thought to the south island and had a comprehensive list of all the things we wanted to do and the possible order we could do them in. Well that didn’t really last long as we decided we would head to Kiakoura that afternoon to be ready for whale watching and dolphin swimming as soon as possible, given they were so weather dependant. So after a quick walk down to the beautiful beach to enjoy the Marlborough or more specifically the Queen Charlotte sound, we hopped in Elton and headed off back down the windy road we had come up in the dark the night before.

We passed Through Blenheim, one of the many wine regions that I had been keen to get to a few days later as they were having a wine and food festival there. We had already been told there wasn’t much else to see so I was undecided whether to drive back this same direction again just for the festival. Well having arrived in what looked like California (huge dry grass hills and bright green fields with vines of grapes growing) we were unimpressed with the town itself. The same old flat, functional and quite ugly, so even with a festival going on I couldn’t quite see what the fuss would be, so that was it, that was struck off the list and we were back on our tour with a few days gained. This was lucky given the bad luck we were about to have in Kaikoura. Driving down we passed lots of the usual sheep you see all over NZ but some had just had a hair cut but from someone who failed hairdressing school and wanted to take it out on animals!! They had huge chop lines where the shearer had been a bit rough - I suggested to Nath it would probably be best not to get his hair cut around here!

Now if Blenheim was one of the ugly sisters, Kiakoura was the deformed brother that was locked away and not even spoken about!!! The town was horrid and basic, again we had been told this place was a crap hole but you never quite believe it till you see it yourself (really should listen to people, I’d tell them that Wycombe was horrid too and they’d believe me but then its reputation proceeds it!!). The drive there along the coast however was spectacular, huge mountains reaching the sea with milky blue water. We stopped at many points just to take it in and enjoy what was left of the early evening sun as I had heard the weather the next day was gonna be grey. Anyway we checked into the campsite (well scabby motel with some grass out the back) where Nath got to understand why I had struggled to book us in in the first place (two Chinese guys who just didn’t understand what we were saying).

We had to get up really early the next morning as the whale watch was due to begin at 7:45am!! So even though it was a struggle we managed to get up excited that we were gonna see whales in few hours. The weather as we had got up was half grey half sunny so I was optimistic, however by the time we got to the check in centre (which was based at the old whale way station) the rain had started to pour. I was still ever hopeful but when we got to the check in desk unsurprisingly it was cancelled. I was particularly annoyed at this as I had rung literally 15 mins prior to make sure it was worth checking out early from our camp site (and not going back to bed) but had been told the morning one had gone ahead so this one should be fine. Needless to say everyone wanted to be booked in the next spot which wasn’t going to be till the next day, so as we were shattered we booked ourselves in for the more reasonable time of 12:30 the next day!! We managed to get back to our spot at the holiday park without them even noticing we’d gone (hehehe), so carried on using the internet until we got kicked out - sneaky ay!

So what else is there to do in Kaikoura: there’s a few shops mainly full of tourist tat, some over priced cafes with cute sea related names, kayaking (in this weather, no chance), dolphin swimming (again, no chance) oh and a trash to fashion museum. So with the bounty of stuff to do in the local area Nath and I went for a drive instead. We figured we’d be freedom camping the next night so drove off for a bit to find somewhere we could use later on, however driving south towards Christchurch there wasn’t anything and only a few paid campsites. After driving for about an hour we decided that the places we had seen on the north side of Kaikoura on our way down from Picton were much better so we would camp that end instead. As we were already south of the town we would stop at the beach side and have a wander. Nath and I always seem to enjoy walking around beaches, especially if they are rocky ones where we can go looking for things. I figured this was because of living by the beach at Uni or a fine appreciation for the simpler things, Nath however pointed out its because we’re cheap and this is the only thing that’s always free where ever we go - dam.

The beautiful mountain view we had had on the drive down had well and truly disappeared now to be replaced by a blanket of grey mist, the rain went on and on. We spent a while at the beach looking round, and collecting up loads of Paua shells (I was well happy). I decided I was sure I would do something with them once we were back home. At most beaches you are allowed to fish for these crustaceans but only allowed to take so many per person. It seems that most people quite rightly only want the muscle inside and not the pretty shiny shell. We also saw lots of seals laying around in the rain trying to get some sleep. I happened to enjoy a quick dip myself when the sandy ledge I was standing on to wash my shells in a rock pool became part of the ocean once more - great its raining and cold and now my jeans and trainers are wet through. This will take days to dry, oh well hopefully the weather forecast for the next few days would be right and I would have some sun to dry them out in, until then my reserve trousers and socks with sandals, nice!!!

We headed back to town to try and enjoy the high streets delectable goods, but in the end we got wet and bored very quickly, so brought a cake each and headed back to the van for a coffee to go with our treat (mmmmmm tea and a slice a cake). We hung inside the van pretty much all day as the rain did not stop! And eventually headed out to our freedom camp spot, a nice little off the road dirt track right by the crashing waves and full of surfer dudes and their psychedelic vans man!!! It was a great spot with a brilliant view of milky blue waves against a mountain backdrop (although a little misty with all the rain). Would have been better if the rain had stopped but it continued to drizzle into the night. The only thing with our new spot was that we were open to all the elements so it was pretty cold in the van that night, but was still kind of cool as we snuggled up under the duvet and watched a film on the laptop in the dark.

Next morning before we were even defrosted, the surfer dudes were back and trying to catch some waves. Now I’m not a surfer at all but even I could tell there was no point in trying this morning. We did enjoy watching a couple and their dogs surfing as one dog in particular wouldn’t leave his master and kept following them out. At times he would disappear form view and we’d hold our breath waiting till he reappeared again, which he always did. In the end the guy must have got worried or annoyed as he mad the dog do a very good “sit” at the edge of beach and wait for him to return!! Anyway we headed back into town to join our whale tour only to find all the morning tours had a high likelihood of sea sickness. I do suffer from sickness although I just feel it I never am, and I had come prepared with my anti sickness bands, which had always worked before, but as it said “high” I took their advice and also took a tablet.

As we went to get on the coach that took us to the boat (we had been given tickets we had to show) a random woman tapped me on the arm and asked if I had the tickets, she obviously saw the ticket in my hand but didn’t realise who I was as she then followed me towards the coach. As we boarded the coach she was still right behind me and when the guy asked for my ticket I showed him and Nath and I got on, he then asked the woman behind me and she said I’m with her. “No your not” I said thinking she was trying to get a free ride, then she suddenly paid attention for the first time in 10 mins and realised I wasn’t her friend we just both happened to have a black jumper on - phew, I thought she was gonna be my stalker or something. Anyway we got onto the boat which was a huge jet powered monster with an upper viewing deck and were told that the swells were two meters so it might be a bit bumpy, and my god they weren’t kidding. After a very long 30 min butt numbing ride we came across our first sighting. We were lucky enough to see three sperm whales on our outing, well Nath did anyway as I soon had to sit back down stairs and focused on the horizon for most of the trip (those tablets and bands had not worked a jiffy!). All I got to see were stupid arse people standing in front of the window so I had nothing but their backsides to focus on and the beautiful aroma of someone else spewing into their sick bag!! All in all the trip for me was not great. Nath on the other hand was up on the viewing deck whenever they let us go up and although he felt a little iffy had a great time (as always)

Back on dry land we looked over the photos and film that Nath had managed to get; three whales, some huge albatross and it was all very nice but we were kind of disappointed by it all. It had been a lot of money to go and even minus the sea sickness we were expecting a little more I think. You get to see a small sliver of the top of a whale 300 meters away with a spray of water as they breath and then if you’re lucky you get to see their tale as they dive, but then as you soon learn about whales, they can hold their breath for hours, so once that tale has gone under you have to wait ages for them to come back up again. I think we had been expecting to see more of the whale, like they show you on the promotional video, I mean we weren’t stupid enough to think it would be like sea world and they’d perform for us but I was expecting a little bit more.

With that done we both got into Elton, a little sea sick still (which lasted most of the drive back to Picton) and headed back towards the Marlborough Sounds and sunshine!!! It had been a worthwhile visit to see the whales but the weather had spoilt it a little bit and although we have loads of time left I didn’t want to be held up waiting for great weather at every place we went to, so we decided from then on to keep an eye on our time table and maybe come back to Kaikoura towards the end of our trip to swim with the dolphins (fingers crossed).

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Photos

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Our first DOC site on the South Island

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Get off my flip-flop!

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Hand fed rice crispies......... thoes ducks are going to taste so nice once they are fattened up!!!

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He is holding a stick honest! (I'm not sure that sounds right)

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Picton

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Seconds before the wave came in and socked mandys feet.....lol

Comments

[Vix]

I love how you write!
I love how you write! You go from very poetic to cheeky girl in one move!!! (This is a good thing!) xx