Blogs from Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 13

An uncomfortable night’s sleep (must’ve been all those crossed limbs!) broken again and again (and again) by what had to be huge road-trains haring down Highway 1, just behind the campsite, was followed by the most beautiful sight. Sunshine, no rain, light winds and a clear view of the snow on top of the Kaikoura mountains. None of us dared think the best … but a short nip through the hole in the fence (NOT officially recognised) and across the railway to the Whale Watch office confirmed it. We would be going whale-watching – YIPPEE! A pootle around the gift-shop, a sniff of the wonderful fried breakfasts in the café (good option only to sniff these, as you’ll discover later) and a genuinely interesting introductory video and safety briefing and then we were on the coach ... read more

Upon leaving Nelson we decided to try some of the local wines since we were driving through some nice looking vinyards so we dropped into Vines Village & tried some Bouldevines (leaving with two bottles of a nice Pinot Noir that was 2 for $20) then down the road to Domaine Georges Michel to try some more & discovered a very palatable Pinot Noir rose! We also found some tasty venison pies for lunch before heading down the east coast to Kaikoura stopping off at Kekerengu where Julian nearly left his shirt on the beach! Lovely black sands there & I got to test my new hairband created from a find in the scraps box of the quiting shop at Vines Village! Other brief photo stops also occured along the coast which was well worth the ... read more

We set off early driving through Blenheim, the centre of the wine growing region with over 40 wineries in the area although a little early to be sampling the wine!!!,. Crossing the ‘dry hills’ of the Marlborough ranges we headed towards one of the most spectacular coastlines of the South Island, the Kaikoura coast. The views were again absolutely stunning, mountains, hills and extremely rugged coastline. The road hugs the shore for about 50 km and there were many places to stop and see the native wildlife including New Zealand fur seals playing on the shores of the turquoise South Pacific Ocean. We stopped to watch a large group of adult seals on the shoreline and noticed a Department of Conservation sign, Ohau Stream Seal Pups and Waterfall walk that Natalie and Allan (the couple we ... read more

Kaikoura is the Whale Watching Town from NZ, unfortunately the Tours are too expensive. The first Night i slept on a nice Rest Area near the Town. The Beach was full of wood - Campfire Time. On the next Day i had my first Breakfast only in my T-Shirt without Jacket etc... Blue Sky and 20 Degress - YES it's getting Spring in NZ. The whole Day was awesome. I walked around the Peninsula of Kaikoura, Seals everywhere and crystal clear water. The second Night i slept in a small Campsite directly on the Ocean. On the 3th Day i walked a Bush Walk near the Town and leave the Town for my Roundtrip to the Arthurs Pass and back to Picton to do the Trek on Friday. ... read more

Hi! Well, we've been busily ticking off things to do over the last few days. We didn't go to the glow-worm caves but we did go to Milford Sound which was, as pretty much everyoe who's been here before said, amazing! We were lucky enough to not only see the beautiful fiord (not technically a 'sound', something to do with the receeding waters and glaciers) but we saw some Bottlenose Dolphins, New Zealand Fur Seals (not actually that rare but reasonably entertaining nonetheless) and a single Yellow-Eyed Penguin, the first of the season apparetly, which was waiting patiently on its own for the mating season to begin! The next day was a pretty intesive driving day, takig us from Te Anau to Haast. While all of the drive was picturesque the last bit, from Wanaka to ... read more