All aboard the Interislander Ferry at 7:45 this morning, for a three hour crossing of the Cook Strait from Wellington to Picton. We met a 60-ish couple from Wisconsin who are biking on their own from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island. They’re doing it in reasonable bites and taking 60 days. We were impressed!
Wellington waterfront
Entering the channels nearing Picton; North Island on the horizon
We picked up our car - a Jeep Renegade with built-in GPS that didn’t function - in Picton. They gave us a handheld GPS; we think the SD card might have been removed from the one in the car. We drove southeast for 160 km to Kaikoura. The first half was through and across sere hills that looked like a flash fire waiting to happen.
Then there were irrigated vineyards, and finally, the metallic blue waters along the coast. We made a couple of stops along the oceanfront to watch the changing scenery.
New Zealand fur seals were hunted almost to extinction by the Maori and early Europeans. The population is recovering well, and increases from 16% - 25% per year. This colony at Ohua Point is faring well, especially considering that about 100,000 cubic meters of debris came down here during the 2011 earthquake, totally covering the road and severely affecting the seals.
We were amused by this torpedo-shaped pup. It would curl up like its sleeping companion nearby, and then go flat out.
Kaikōura is a beachy strip of a town with little seafood restaurants, activity centers launching whale, dolphin and albatross cruises, and some campgrounds and hotels. There are about 2,400 residents over its 3.6 square miles. You can walk its length in 30 minutes. We walked to a restaurant for Sicilian fish soup and fish and chips. The spicy soup with fish, calamari and green-lipped mussels was the clear winner.
About Kaikōura: In Maori, Kai means “food”, and Kōura means “crayfish”. They are plentiful here, and we mean to eat some. Not being fresh-water critters, they technically aren’t crayfish but red or spiny lobsters. That’s ok with us.
Day 2 - We headed south to Point Kean at the end of the road to hike the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway, The peninsula is a relatively flat, wave-cut piece of former seabed that began being lifted by subterranean forces over 15 million years ago. It was initially an island. Over time, river gravel eroded from nearby mountain ranges filled the gap between the peninsula and the mainland. The land is still rising about 1 cm per year, but wind erosion keeps the total height fairly stable. The youngest layers are just emerging from the sea at the base of the cliffs, stretching far into the ocean, providing places for fur seals and humans to explore.
Clifftop views of shallow bays and fur seal colonies delight at every turn.
Disinterested cattle graze on top of the peninsula. At one point, we climbed a wooden staircase built over the fence and continued through their grazing land.
We hiked to South Bay on the far side of the peninsula, and back again. It was threatening to rain, but it held off just until we returned to Point Kean car park. We had a late lunch huddled under a lopsided umbrella at the locally renowned Kaikoura Seafood BBQ kiosk on the side of the road. And what a lunch1
We leveraged our seven mile hike as an excuse to order as if it were our only chance to eat seafood in NZ. The platter included prawns, scallops, whiting, cray fritters, green-lipped mussels, garlic bread, salad, and rice. Plus we got half a crayfish with additional fixings. No sauces here but lemon and garlic butter. No dinner for us today.
Mid-afternoon was dedicated to avoiding the rain, digesting and doing laundry. We gassed up the car so we’re all set to head to Christchurch in the morning.
Great photos! Love the torpedo pup, especially.
ReplyDelete