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!
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