After having covered most of Christchurchs highlights on Day 1, I was eager to get up the coast to Kaikoura, a stunning coastal town located on a peninsula (one of NZs most dramatic!) backed by steeply rising foothills of the Seward Kaikouras. This is the town where people come to surf or to go whale-watching and dive with dolphins. Marine animal are abundant at Kairkoura because it lies at the intersection powerful ocean currents where a resulting continental shelf forms, and a complex marine food chain is sustained. This unique environment feeds a plethora of marine species, including the whales (sperm, orca, pilot), dolphins (hector, dusty, bottle-nose), penguins, and albatross. Its also the type of environment that harvests crayfish, and the name Kaikara literally translate to food the cray in Maori. I met an awesome chick from Denmark, Laura Rytcher, coming off the Nakedbus (no, people are not naked) from Christchurch, and we later met up for dinner/drinks before catching live music at a bar called the Strawberry Tree. In the meantime, I checked into the Dusky Lodge (pretty cool hostel, and the cleaner guy was pretty cute) before setting out on the coastal peninsula walk. This walk started out along the beach, but then started to ascend after the seal colony area. Speaking of seal colony, I was fortunate enough to get up-close-and-personal with two fur seal that were just lazily hanging out on the rocks with their flippers tucked in as if they were getting all nice and cosy. I hung out for about 20 min, hoping that the looming high tide would get them up and active, but NO FLINCH! While waiting, I met Cheah Foong Foong, who ended up being great company on the peninsula walk. We traversed a beautiful farm along the coast, and stood wide-eyed at the prominent lone tree that jutted out from the green grass and overlooked the water. The trail was a bit tricky to follow (no signs for where to turn off and loop back to the town!), but we managed to find it right as a ferry was cutting through the waters in our direction. The sun was starting its descent in stride with ours, and the views of the water were glowing with a certain ferocity that made you appreciate it even more. Later that night, Laura and I caught a 2+ hour set from a talented folk/rock quartet named JULIAN TEMPLE BAND. They are from Dunedin, but had recently been on tour in California, so there was obviously no shortage of conversation. Since it was the Saturday before Christmas, many people were dressed up in Santa outfits, and this one Kiwi dude was in a red speedo and reindeer suspenders, wearing reindeer antlers..(what a site). Upon my request for a Christmas tune, Julian Temple played a hilarious song called Santa Rides a Motorbike. Many laughs and hugs exchanged in this small-town pub, and it was pretty endearing to spot 4 people out that night who had waited on me that day in town (hostel, tourist office, and restaurant). And, little did I know, I would later spot that band on the streets of Queenstown the following week when they just HAPPENED to be in town for a gig. Small world! :0 https://facebook/media/set/?set=a.10100125771888959.1073741903.3800441&type=1&l=b0fce381eb
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 12:50:54 +0000
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