Kaikoura


Here's Kaikoura. It's a small town on the east coast of the south island. It's main industry seems to be nature. You can whale watch, swim with dolphins, swim with seals, walk through various seal colony's, and hike in the surrounding mountains. There are several huts within a days walk. I really enjoyed my stay here. The Hostel's here were very nice. The YHA is a little far from town - ~1.5 miles - but is well worth the walk. Very clean, and the managers were very helpful. On to the photos!


kaikoura Bay

 

This is the view from the YHA in Kaikoura.The day I arrived was nasty and cold!! Everyone at the hostel was kinda sad and angry. Seems it was this way for a week,thus NO whale watching or dolphin swimming. People were not pleased. Oh well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaikoura Bay Sunny Day The next morning! Perfect. I got very lucky. This is looking back towards the YHA and seal colonies, from town. To the far left is where the walk to the seals begin. It's a hefty walk, ~ 8 miles to see all the colonies. I did the entire hike, it was well worth it. It starts on the beach then climbs the cliff, then goes back down to the beach - all this is around the other side of the cliff shown above.The kicker is the tide. When it comes in, the walk along the beach is cut off!! Trapping anyone caught below. The YHA and all the other hostel's had good tide charts, thankfully.

 

 

 

 

 

Mtns.around bay

 

Ahhh, the first snow. What's that to the left?! Loch Ness monster? Cooool. Uhhh, yer other left! D'oh! I mean, it must have gotten turned around in the scanner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

kaikoura

 

This is Kaikoura proper. It's a nice little town. It seems to be off most of the tourist trails, winter anyway - summer maybe different. Hopefully it won't get over-grown. The Mtn to the right has some great hiking trails, and 2 or 3 Mtn huts. The hut system in NZ is fantastic. Makes for some brilliant hikes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sperm Whale

 

Ahh, whale watching. What fun! The tours here are very good. They don't crowd the whales, and never cross in front of them. The whales here in winter/fall are Sperm whales. I saw 6 or 7 on this day. Pretty good. The sea was very choppy, but not as bad as the day before when I went dolphin swimming! That was a day!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sperm Whale

sperm whale 'thar see blows!'

 

Dolphins

 

A dusky dolphin. These guys are very active. This pod was probably 3 or 400 strong. Again I was lucky, they are usually long gone this time of year. Note the choppy sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Dusky Dolphin

Close-up on a Dusky dolphin

 

 

 

Dolphins

Hundreds of Dusky's

 


Dolphin Encounters - click to go to their site! Six visible here, dolphins that is. It's surprisingly difficult to catch them on film. I got a lot of pictures of waves! Well, it's the experience not the photos. Anyhoo, back to dolphin swimming. It's a really cool thing to do. The tours here are all excellent. The picture to the right is the postcard 'Dolphin Encounters' give me. I think it does a good job of letting folks know what it's like. This is obviously summer, and it's still cold! They also let people just ride and see the dolphins, for a reduced fare. A good deal. Click on the photo to go to their site. The water is freezing!! Probably 45 degrees in the winter/fall. Even with a fairly thick wetsuit I was uncomfortable. We were in the water for ~70 minutes. I could not grip anything after that! But it was well worth it. The boat had a warm water hose and hot chocolate. Very welcomed. They also had hot showers once we got back to shore. The tours are dolphin friendly, BTW. They NEVER feed the dolphins, a bad practice (the dolphin swims in Australia almost always feed the dolphins). Plus, the tours never cut in front of the pods - or otherwise bother the dolphins. It works like this. The pod is found. The boat then comes up beside the pod - some distance away, and stops. They tell the fools, uh customers, to jump in the water! Brrrr. That's it. It's up to the dolphins at that point. They can ignore you, it happens sometimes, or they come over to see what's up. They were curious the day I went. I have to say that words cannot describe the experience. 3 or 4 hundred wild dolphins racing by you in the middle of the ocean is like nothing you will ever experience! The Australian fed dolphins are nothing like this. That's like SeaWorld, this experience is wild, natural, just amazing. When a dusky gets close and stares you in the eye...well, that's something! I can't wait to go back, eh JR!


seals

A seal. Hard to see against the rocks

 

Seals

A couple of photo's of seals. The walk through the colonies was a high light. They are fairly friendly, just have to keep your distance. They like it if people stay low. They are intimidated by 6ft tall creatures walking around them, but 2 ft tall things aren't so bad. The seals keep a close eye on you, but don't get too upset by the entire process. There weren't too many people out the days I was there. Winter is surely the best time in NZ. No crowds at all. Plenty of space at the inns.:-)

 

 

 

 

 

Sheep!!!

 

Ahhh, NZ's best know creatures. Did I mention there were a few of these guys around? Zowie there are MILLIONS of sheep on the islands! They have really changed the eco-system. No more trees! Nice sweaters/jumpers, I guess it's worth it - not! Too late.

 

 

 

 

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Mtns around Kaikoura

This is around the corner of the first photo

South Island Christchurch