Kaikoura - New Zealand

The drive down to Kaikoura was lovely, the roads here are very quiet and the scenery is stunning. As you can see, beautiful blue skies, snow capped mountains, green farmland which as we travelled further down became coastland on the left hand side. 

From the road I spotted a seal in the sea and then more on the rocks, so we stopped the car and got out to take a closer look. First of all we thought there was only a small group of seals but then we realised that there were many more blending into the rocks. This was a right family group, with a posturing very large father down to tiny pups. They seemed to be alright with us being so close, we stayed by the roadside and did not go down to the rocks. Some of them even seemed to be posing for the camera. 

Kaikoura is a lovely town, it has a nice feel about it and was nice to wander around. On arriving we went to the i-site information place which was very helpful and gave us lot of help on what to do. First of all we headed to the scuba diving place to organise a dive for David, where we met a lovely English couple who own the business, they moved over 9 years ago, after holidaying on New Zealand and immediately thought this was where they wanted to be. 

While in Kaikoura we also booked a kayaking trip for later that day and a whale watching trip for the day after. 

By the time we got on the kayaking trip the wind had picked up making the sea very choppy but it was still sunny. After getting into a very fetching outfit of a splash skirt, wind proof jacket and life vest we were talked through different oar strokes and safety issues linked to the trip. 

Then we had to get into the kayak and set the foot rests to our own setting, practise putting the splash skirt over the hole in which you sit , it is meant to keep the water out, and the person in the back of the kayak had to unhook the rudder and practise turning right and left.  Once this was done we carried the kayaks to the sea and not very elegantly got in. I sat in the front and David sat in the back. 

The actual kayaking was harder than when we have done it preciously,  mainly due to the sea being rougher but it was still good fun. We kayaked up to a rocky patch which is a bachelor pad for the New Zealand fur seals. There were a few seals chilling out there and a couple came into the water to swim around us, which was lovely to see. We then kayaked round into another bay where we saw other seals sunbathing on the rocks. 

The whole trip took around three hours and somehow I managed to get soaked on my lower half while David stayed bone dry! My arms were aching during the night but were not too bad the day after.

The next day we were supposed to go whale watching but unfortunately the weather turned for the worse and it was cancelled but we were put onto a trip for the day after, which was also cancelled.
We went to do a walk at the seal colony but I think they were also put off by the bad weather and were nowhere to be seen.

This strange stone structure which looks like an old fireplace was on the rocks, I wonder if there used to be house attached. 

The seaweed in the rock pools is amazing, it is huge like trees clinging to the rocks. 

After our second whale trip was cancelled we headed off for Christchurch .