Sams NZ Adventures: 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