Kia Ora - Kaikoura Part II

Kaikoura is known for its marine life. You can sign up with tour operators to go for whale watching trips (a German couple whom we met at a B&B in the later part of our trip told us they saw a family of whales at close proximity) or dolphin and seal swimming tours, which allow you to snorkel in close proximity with the marine creatures. Due to the bad weather, we figured going on the tours would be a waste of money and went to the Peninsula Seal Colony, home to the Southern Fur Seals instead.

We were unlucky because we only spotted two seals at least 50m away. A friend of mine who visited the same spot previously managed to get up close and personal with a sleeping seal.

Can you spot the seal?

We were hungry and stopped at Kaikoura Seafood BBQ, a little shack by the roadside which sold almost every oceanic goodie you can imagine.

Lunch was a piping hot bowl of seafood chowder, grilled crayfish and whitebait fritters served with white rice. Our favourite dish believe it or not, wasn't the grilled crayfish but the humble chowder which was chock-full of clam, fish, prawn and squid. BEST CHOWDER EVER!

Kia Ora - Kaikoura Part I

We were greeted by many signs with "Kia Ora"when we landed in Christchurch. (Kia Ora is a Maori greeting which according to Wikipedia, informally means "hi" although it literally translates to "be well/healthy".) Never mind that it was gloomy or rainy, we were on holiday and determined to enjoy our 2 weeks away from work.

We picked up our car, a humble Nissan Sunny from Apex Rentals near the airport. The husband pre-booked our car from Apex because it was the cheapest out of the rental companies and we could borrow and return the car at different towns. After checking the car and doing the necessary paperwork, we made our way north and kept our fingers crossed for some sunshine for the rest of our days in NZ.

Our first stop in our NZ South Island road trip was Kaikoura, a seaside town about 180km from Christchurch.

Although it was only supposed to be a 2 hours journey, it felt like the longest drive of our lives. We hadn't slept well on the red-eye flight and the cold, wet weather was making us both extremely sleepy. We struggled to stay awake and had to roll the windows down a few times to let the cold draft whenever our eyelids got too heavy. On hindsight, we should have rested one night in Christchurch before starting the road trip.

After what seemed like eternity, we reached Panaroma Motel, a motel which I had picked thanks to Tripadvisor. A pity it was still rainy and gloomy, or we would have gotten a spectacular view of the beach, with the Kaikoura Ranges in the background.

The view from our motel room

It would have been beautiful, if it were sunny