A Journey the Length of New Zealand - Stop over in Kaikoura

        One of my "bucket list" items for the year in New Zealand was a whale watching cruise. Not exactly something that one has many chances to do in either Nebraska or Arizona. Every time I spoke to anyone about whale watching they assured me that Kaikoura was the place to go. They frequently have Sperm Whale sightings along with dolphins, seals, and albatross! The first boat of the day left at 7:30 so I was up early and ready to go. Thankfully the hostel was kind enough to stop me and make a call first. Turns out the sea was extremely rough and they were canceling all of the trips out that day. Luckily I did not leave until later in the afternoon the next day so I had plenty of time to get re-booked for the 7:30 boat the following day. 

         Within the next hour it had started raining and I could completely understand why they were canceling the day's worth of trips. But... despite the yucky weather I decided I didn't want to waste my day in the coastal town. I headed out with my "rain resistant" jacket to find some seals!

Like I explained in the previous post, the beaches down here are very very different from up north. But I really like the black pebbled look. The stones were so smooth and some were just perfect circles. I might have pocketed a few that I thought a friend up north might like! Yep, I was carting around rocks, crazy I know!

As I walked along the coast I found the remainder of the local ANZAC Day Celebrations. Once again it was amazing to think EVERY single town has one of these services and lays flower wreaths on the Memorials. 

Kaikoura has a very interestingly shaped peninsula with a walkway around that I was wanting to check out as that was the closest seal colony to town. But the weather was really not cutting me a break!

After about 3 miles in the rain I decided to take a quick break and dry off while checking out the local aquarium. Had a little bit of fun capturing shots of the colorful fish. 

Kaikoura is actually known for "shellfish" or lobster as we would call it in the States. While a lot of the restaurants there serve lobster I actually was too lazy to leave my hostel for dinner either night!

Such a photogenic fish!! 

It wasn't that much further down the rough and rocky coast that....

I FOUND BABY SEALS!!!

And boy were they cute! There were about 10 babies that were playing in the little lagoon area and laying in the grass around the tress. They were friendly and seemed to like showing off to myself and a few other tourists that had stopped to watch. They were so cute I took the oportunity to test out my video function on my camera. I move around WAY too much but it is kinda fun to watch. Here is my first attempt at filming a video... and posting it to the blog! So for some reason it is loading... but not working. I will try to fix this.  

A little further on I found where the adults were hanging out. On a wet and cold day they looked a little sad huddled up on the rocks! 

But... not all of them were sticking with the rocks! I came around a corner in the boardwalk and right in front of me was one of the adult seals. She seemed very unconcerned with blocking the path. 

The whole time I walked down the little side path and stood there she was much more concerned with a little grooming she was doing than me and my silly pictures. 

The nearby waves and rocks made it completely understandable why the little guys were playing in the small lagoon. I took the path up to the top of the hillside and around the tip of the penisula. I wasn't able to walk all the way around to the marina but with the weather that wasn't all a bad thing. 

The views of the rough blue green water were worth the windy rainy weather for sure.

Still there chilling on the boardwalk!

When I got back to the little lagoon area there were two kids trying their hand at petting this little guy. I am not going to lie, if they hadn't been doing it and then been yelled at by their mother.... I probably would have tried too! He was just so cute!

This was a map of the peninsula I had explored, sadly I only made it part way around because of a "slip" washing out the track. But I was successful at seeing seals so all was well!

I definitely tested the limits of my jacket, you could wring the water out of it as I got back to the hostel. Luckily they kept this kitchen common area quite warm and toasty with the wood burning stove all night long so my coat and shoes were nice and dry by the time I headed out the next morning. It also was a great place to relax after all the walking that day! 

A Journey the Length of New Zealand - My First Train Ride

After arriving in Picton I was able to board my Scenic Journey KiwiRail train. I had never been on a train quite like this before and was really excited. It even picked us up at an old school rail station.

 

 

 

Caught a reflection as the train came to a stop this was pretty much what I did for like the whole ferry ride and train trip... it was amazing I still had any room on my memory cards!

 

 

This was the car that fascinated me the most! It was an outdoor viewing car which anyone could go up and enjoy. No window glare in my pictures of the trip! 

 

 

Although the comfy seats with tables and large windows were pretty good competition. They had headphones and screens so you could listen to the area highlights as we went along as well.

 

 

 

 

While I did enjoy a little while inside the train the beautiful sights soon drove me up to the observation car to nab photographs of the vineyards and upcoming salt flats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a very different feeling New Zealand from Northland that is for sure! The rough mountains had a very cold and wintery feel already and I was thankful for my coat and gloves!

 

 

 

 

Before we reached the coast we went through some salt flats where they harvest salt right from the sea. The different pools were all different colors as they increased the salinity and then we even saw where the finished product was loaded by augers up onto rail cars.

 

 

As pretty as the vineyards and mountains had been I really loved when we reached the coast. This was a rough cold coast with pebble beaches. There were many rivers we were able to see meeting the sea too.

 

 

 

 

During part of my time in the observation car I was approached by a college age guy who was American. He wanted to see if I would take his picture and then asked if he could tell me his story. Since we had a couple hours on the train I figured why not. Turns out he had come to New Zealand from California for spring break and planned to do a week long tramp on one of the Great Walks. This made me very curious as I knew that spring break was long over by the last week of April normally. He went on to explain that during his tramp he had gotten lost somehow and that he had been rescued after three days wandering around. He told me that before being found he had nothing to eat for nearly 24 hours and was beginning to think he would never get out. Once he was rescued he contacted his professors and decided to extend his trip. He said he just wanted to make sure that I was taking full advantage of my time here because life is short. He also told me to be careful. I assured him that I was living my year to the fullest but that it was a good reminder to be careful. I knew one of the things I wanted to do while on the South Island was an overnight tramp on one of the Great Walks so it was a good reminder that this person who seemed perfectly capable had managed to get himself so lost he had to be rescued.

 

 

 

 

It wasn't far from Kaikoura I got to see my first seals!! All along the rocky shore we were able to see the fur seals lying on rocks and some swimming in the surf. I was pretty excited and had heard that Kaikoura has a waterfall that is like a baby seal daycare so they were definitely on my list.

 

 

 

 

 

After a couple hours of beautiful views we reached Kaikoura, it was about 25 hours after I had left from Whangarei and I was extremely happy to find my room at the Dusky Dolphin Hostel. I made a quick dinner and was asleep very very early that night! After all, I had a big day planned for tomorrow.