Blogs from Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 43

Kaikora, is renouned for one of the best areas in the World for Marine life. In view of this, we did a Whale watching tour........ As we have seen most other sealife creatures, this is the only one remaining.... The trip was fantastic.....we got to see 3 different sperm whales..... You don't see too much of their body, but enough to see the 17 metres of length..... then the classic dip, and the tail shot...... A one of moment. On the way back, we went through a pod of 200 dusky dolphins, who were the most playful, show-off dolphins we have ever seen, all swimming around the boat, loving the attention, doing flips, turns, you name it...... the only downside they were too quick to get any good pictures.....plenty of movie clips though for memories sake..... ... read more

So I was real excited to show my mom Kaikoura, my favorite town in NZ so far. But as we arrived into town the rain fallowed up…I swear just my luck. Mom was a good sport, she even walked out onto the cliffs to try and see some seals…too bad they were playing hide and seek. It was funny to see my mom trying to hide from the rain. So we headed back to good ol Lincoln to plan the next few days. Christchurch was our next destination. We got a nice little place called Camelot hotel right on the square. It was fun. We spent the time enjoying the artzy side of CHCH: the art fair, the art gallery, cute cafes, the cathedral itself - very nice. I even got my mom to go out ... read more

The Aquatic Wonders of Kaikoura Arrived at Kaikora from Christchurch, here we booked to go Dolphin swimming: Kaikora is a unique place where you have a very high chance of seeing a massive variety of rare and not so rare marine life. It's unique because less than a few kilometers from the shore there is a very very deep canyon. The deepest point is over 2000meters!! So you get a variety of Deep sea divers such as Sperm, Blue, and Humpback whale. they eat the mysterious giant squid that lurk at the very bottom of the canyon. You also get Orcas, Dolphins, Albatros, Sea lions, etc.... (Ally in her element!!) The Dolphin Swim Ol my god!!! We had the most amazing morning: woke up at 7am, had to be at the place early...once we'd had a ... read more

On the road again but this time in a campervan!!! say hello to vinnie volkswagen - our beast of a campervan (well converted tranny van) - it's ace - sod the tent camping lark juls & jingo'- we've moved up market, we're campervanners now ! Although our familiarisation and learning hasn't been without hickup - consequently volume 2 of "Helpful Camper Hints" (Volume 1 originally published in 93? in Amsterdam by Elise & Hoppy) has been ressurrected: 1. Do not drive campervan off camping bay when still connected to the 240v camp mains -otherwise 18ft trailing lead will fly along behind campervan lassooing fellow campers and resident camp ducks !!!! (ps Harrisson would have loved the ducks!) 2. Always remember to turn off the gas rings when cooking has completed. NEVER close the glass hob lid ... read more

Today we got up early at 7 as we had to be down at the 'whaleway' station ready to check in for our sperm whale experience!! We started off by heading 7 miles off shore til we found our first 18m Sperm whale..Tiaki!! They only come up for about 10minutes every hour for a quick bit of air so we had to be quick. He floated there quite happily in front of us and a few other boats as we all took plent of pics before giving us a huge wave goodbye as he went back under for more food! Apparently they eat more than a tonne of fish a day including different types of sharks and loads of other fish and the odd few human if you get in there way! We then went on ... read more