Kaikoura

**Warning: this post contains pictures of seals, which some people might find cute.  There is also a couple of pictures of me, which some people may find offensive**

Evelyne and I had two days off work, so we drove over to Kaikoura for a couple of days. After spending most of Saturday and part of Sunday with Josh changing the timing belt on my car - it took a lot longer than was expected, but i trust josh knew what he was doing and it got finished on Sunday evening after 2 trips to supercheapauto to get tools, and a blown fuselink for the altenator which meant i could not start the car - josh lent me his car so i could go back to the Playhouse Cafe and on Monday morning i had to stop by supercheapauto again to pick up a fuselink, drive to Joshs house and fit the fuse so i could start my car and we were off to Kaikoura.

  Kaikoura is a small town on the East coast of the south island well known for its seal colony and crayfish, in Maori Kai means food and Koura means crayfish.  The drive took us through Malborough, where there are loads of vineyards and onto Highway 1 which connects Picton to Christchurch.  Once the road starts going along the coast, the views seaward Kaikoura Mountain range come into view

about 20kms before Kaikoura there is a Seal Colony which we stopped and had a look at

There is also a short river walk, which we nearly missed.  The seal pups swim up the river to a waterfall and they seem to just be playing, but i presume there is another reason they come here.

There were probably around 30-40 seals playing in this pool, it was really fun to watch them play and be so close to them.

After this we drove into Kaikoura and looked for a hostel to stay in.  We found one called Albatross Backpackers, which is a pretty cool hostel.  The hostel was pretty full and we got the last two beds in a dorm room.  We walked into town along the beach to have a look around

The first time i had been on the Pacific Ocean

I looked at the map on my phone and saw there was a supermarket a 10 minute walk away, and after 20 minutes of walking i realised it was a 10 minute drive away! We carried on anyway and eventually arrived and bought some food for dinner.  Back at the hostel we cooked (too much) dinner and offered some to a German girl (yet more germans......) called Steffi and she sat with us for dinner and we played some card games and discussed what we were going to do the next day.  We decided to do the coastal peninsular walk in the morning and then come back to the hostel and meet with Steffi and then go to a farm park.

After Evelyne toasted a mouse for breakfast (it got trapped between the bread and the heating filament, and died trying to climb out) we left early in the morning and started the coastal peninsular walk, which took us on a walk along the coast and around the peninsular.  There was a heavy storm during the night, but luckily it had cleared by the morning and the weather was really nice

walking along the beach i found some complete Paua shells, whilst not particularly rare they often dont survive being washed up ashore.

Further along the coast was another seal colony, and the seals were inconsiderately lying over the path that had been built for humans, so we were forced to walk along the road for a few meters

I think this seal was called George

After a short climb we were on the peninsular and the views were stunning

and of course there was another seal colony to look at

and also some more great views of the mountains

Evelyne thought she was back in Switzerland with this view

After walking beside a path infested with cow pats we were on the other side of the peninsular

When we got back to the hostel Steffi had left a note and a couple of chocolates to say she could not come with us to the farm park, so after lunch we left for the farm park which turned out to be shit.  I really like farm parks, and i think when i go to them with my nieces i secretly enjoy them more than they do so i was looking forward to this but it was a massive let down.  A lot of the animals looked ill, and if there was a visible problem with the animal the guide gave some biologically dubious reason.  The only good thing about this was getting to stroke and feed some alpaca and llamas.

After this we started the long drive home, stopping off for a coffee (and a quick nap for me) we did a quick walk along a beach and found a pile of stones and a marker pen and left our mark with the rest

Kaikoura is a really beautiful place, and i think i will go back there soon and stay a bit longer as there is a lot more to see (not just seals) and do.

 

I have been told i use too many exclamation marks, so i have not used any on this post.  for those of you who missed them, i will put some in the next post.

 

Most of the photos on this post were taken by Evelyne.

 

Bonus photos

Cable Bay, not Kaikoura.  I like photos of me standing on rocks near the sea.

Woofing, Abel Tasman and Golden Bay

At the end of May i moved out of Josh's house and to see more of NZ and meet people and do some traveling and i thought the best way to do this was woofing (which i found out, to my embarrassment, does not involve crawling on the floor and barking like a dog).  The term originally comes from Working On Organic Farms, but is generally used for anywhere that you work for accommodation and food.  I used a website called helpx.com where people advertise for woofers and found a place not to far away from Nelson called the playhouse cafe and theatre.  I contacted them and after visiting the cafe for them to check that i was human they said i could start on the 29th May.  The owners are Nic and Manu (short for Manuela, from Switzerland) and my first job was to drop the previous woofers off at the airport, go to the bank to get some change and then pick up Evelyne (Manu's brothers friend, from Switzerland) from the airport.  I had been here 5 minutes and they had given me the keys to their van and $500, and all they new about me was my name!  They are pretty trusting people.  The deal here is in exchange for 4 hours work a day i get accommodation and all my meals provided.

Inside the Playhouse

Cheeky Monkey, the house cat

So far i have done a variety of jobs, some fun to learn and do such as making pizza dough, serving behind the bar and spraying the trees in the orchard with a ghostbusters style backpack sprayer and some not so fun such as dishwashing and cleaning the toilets.  Overall it is a really cool venue and Manu cooks the most amazing food and sometimes we are allowed some drinks from behind the bar.

We normally get 1 day a week off and last week me and Evelyne went up to Abel Tasman for a walk along the World Famous* Abel Tasman Coastal Track.  We got up early and drove over to Kiateriteri where we took a water taxi up along the coast to start the walk.

Sunrise on Kiateriteri beach

The water taxi took us by split apple rock and a seal colony

 Not a very good photo of Split Apple Rock

Some seals on Adele island

After about 45 minutes we were dropped off at Anchorage to start the walk.

Anchorage Bay

View from Pitt Head

After walking the Pitt Head loop we headed inland towards Cleopatras pool, i didnt take any photos as we had to cross a river on some rocks and i didnt want to slip in (as i have been known to do in the past) and get my camera wet.  All i can say is that it doesnt look like what you think it would look  like, but is pretty cool anyway.  After that we walked back towards the coast and headed south towards the pick up point of Apple Tree Bay, on the way we stopped for some lunch at another bay and soon enough we were at Apple Tree Bay, although i didnt see any apple trees here.

Apple Tree Bay, with Adele Island in the background

The water taxi picked us up just as it was starting to get cold and we headed home.

This week Evelyne and I went up to Golden Bay for the night to have a look around, however the weather the past few days has been pretty bad so we were not expecting to see much.  We stayed at a hostel in Takaka and as it is winter it was really quite and we got our own room.  Manu had given us loads of food from the restaurant as we had worked for it, so we did not need to buy anything while we were there.  We got up in the morning and headed up the coast towards Farewell Spit and Wharariki Beach and as we were driving along the weather got progressively worse and by the time we got to Wharariki Beach car park it was very wet and windy, but we decided to brave the elements and walk the 1.5km to the beach.  By the time we got to the beach we were soaking, but you can see how nice the area is even in dismal weather.

 The rocks in the sea reminded me of the Goonies

We walked around the beach to a cave where there was a seal colony

After about 20 minutes on the beach we headed back to the car as it was too wet and windy to enjoy being there.  We^hen we got back to Takaka Evelyne suggested filling up the car with diesel, but i thought we would make it to Motueka (only about 35km away) so we started the trip over Takaka Hill, and sure enough before long the fuel light came on.  I thought this was just because we were going up hill and i did not want to run out of fuel on a windy (as in winding, although it was windy(i dont need to explain this one) as well), foggy hill.  The fuel light stayed on on the descent and i think we were running on fumes when i pulled into the gas station, and i will listen to my passenger the next time!

I will be staying at the Playhouse Cafe for the next few weeks and then moving on.

Bonus Photos

*In New Zealand