Blogs from Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

I was welcomed to Kaikoura by a very excited Zaidee running towards me with open arms, whilst Jim and Dan embraced in a more manly fashion. We were staying in a lovely hostel called The Adelphi Lodge, a stones throw from the shore and a beautiful backdrop of snow covered mountains. We set off to find the seals and walk the Kaikoura Peninsula and stopped for a lovely picnic lunch, where I, in true Kayleigh fashion, got shat on by a bird. The seals were enormous, enjoying basking in the sunshine. We saw a group of seal pups playing in the grass. I may have got slightly too close to one - which was peacefully lying on the path - and it warned me off with a loud grunt! Zaidee and I were quite amused when ... read more

18th April ’12 Kaikora to Picton The stars of today were the seal pups that we came across at the Ohau Stream waterfall walk just outside of Kaikura. We would have just driven past this ordinarily as it was just a lay- by round a sharp bend with a sign to a waterfall, but we had stopped on the other side of the bend at another lay by to have one last attempt at spotting whales. While there we saw a couple of large seals on the rocks and Howard started talking to this lady who told us about the baby seals on the waterfall walk. So going slowly round the bend with eyes peeled we found the layby car park and stopped. There was a sign explaining how the fur seals used this stream and ... read more

We had a brilliant week in Kaikoura, a place with a rich sea life, whales, dolphins, seals and sea food! There is a Kaikoura range (mountains around 2000m) which we challenged as well. "Kai" means "food" and "Koura" is "crayfish" in Maori language. The paradise for a fisherman! On the way to Kaikoura, we stopped in Conway Flat & Claverley where Lucas caught a massive fish from the beach by a beautiful sunset. We couldn't identify the fish but it was kind of ugly. He let it go and we found out the next day that it was the elephant fish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callorhinchidae I would definitely recommend visiting Goose Bay which has got couple of campsites right on the beach from where you can watch the sea life. You can go collect Paua or dive for crayfish. ... read more

Day 6 Interisland ferry to Picton- was a lovely crossing. It's always windy in Wellington. I wouldn't like to fly in, the runways a tiny strip with sea on both sides and because there are mountains on both sides of Wellington there is a constant wind tunnel going on. Can imagine the ferry must be choppy most days, but today beautiful!! We crossed the twenty odd miles in 3 hours. It takes so long because of the dangerous channels and many islands in the Marlborough sounds. The bus took us directly to a vineyard in Blenheim where we sampled some sauvignon, Riesling and Chardonnay, then bought some to drink with our (massive( green lipped mussels that night, cooked on the barbecue. Looking forward to trying the smoked version later. Then we headed to Hamner Springs to ... read more

Geo: -42.4023, 173.681The problem with New Zealand is that there are too many amazing places and I believe that Kaikoura is high on the list. Being able to use my parents car and them not working worked well for us, so we decided to hit the road for two days and stay one night in Kaikoura. The plan was to visit Hanmer Springs, known for their hot pools, and then continue on to Kaikoura for a nights camping and see what it had to offer the following day.We set off early in the morning with a two hour drive to Hanmer Springs, nestled in a valley in the Southern Alps. It is a nice little town but it was quite busy, seeing as it was just after New Years and holidays for a lot of people ... read more