Kaikoura - A Seal Of Approval

As expected, I was privy to some Japanese Rustling at 5.30am this morning, but it wasn’t too bad because I had to get up early anyway to get ready for my bus pick up. When I had checked out, I mooched off in the direction of the library on the off-chance that their wifi range might stretch out to the street! It did indeed stretch but the system was down, so I went back to the pick up point and waited for the bus. I was still really nervous at the prospect of getting on board this bus – who would be on it, what would happen?!?! Scary stuff! The sun was shining and it was pretty cold, but I was still trying to be resilient and get used to the temperature, even though everyone else was well wrapped up in their winter coats.

At 7.45am the bus arrived and we met our driver, ‘Metro’ (I don’t know why everyone needs a stupid nickname here!). He took us around Christchurch to collect a few more people, but the bus wasn’t particularly full – maybe 12 people in total. When we were on our way, he explained a bit about how the Stray bus works (and I don’t mean the mechanical side of how the engine functions!) and where we would be going. As we continued on our way to Kaikoura, I chatted to a really nice girl called Kerry who is from Southampton – we got on very well and shared our travelling experiences. So I felt a bit more at ease – maybe it’s not going to be as terrifying as I thought...

The drive itself was absolutely beautiful. Again, the rolling hills and countryside looked amazing as the sunshine bounced off the grass. In the distance behind the green hills, I could see the mountain ranges, some with snowy white tips. And unsurprisingly, there were a lot of sheep. After a quick stop for coffee, we continued up and up lots of winding roads, then as we headed back down, the road met the sea and we could see Kaikoura in the distance, across the water. The view was stunning and Metro told us to keep our eyes peeled as this is the area for whale and dolphin watching – sadly they must have all been visiting their grandparents or something as we didn’t see any!

When we arrived at Kaikoura, it was possible to see exactly why people rave about it so much. Yet another tiny little one horse town, but unlike any other I have seen. The town is set against a backdrop of the mountains, but as the town sits on the sea, it makes for a truly wonderful vista indeed. On such as sunny day as today, this view seriously rocked.

Metro dropped us off at the hostel and we checked in. Kerry and I were put in a 6 bed dorm with someone else from the bus, plus three other random people, although the room is very small, we figured it is literally only for one night, so it is no big deal (you see, I am already freaking out less!). We couldn’t wait to get back out and appreciate the town in its full glory and not just through a bus window, so set off out with cameras and sunnies in hand to explore.

We walked through the town, along the beach and appreciated the sights; particularly the way the sun gleamed down on the sea and across the stone beach. Kerry and I chatted as we went and found out that we had quite a lot in common and it was really nice to get on with someone and just talk about life, the universe, everything as we took in the beauty of our surroundings. We kept walking along the bay, until we had gone the whole way round and had even more fabulous views back across Kaikoura. Metro had told us about a place where there might be seals and we could see it further along the coast line. We figured that it was only early afternoon so we had plenty of time, plus being such a sunny day, it would be a shame not to make the effort and go that little bit further.

The walk was well worth it, as we got close we could see a seal sitting on the rocks. It was huge! We sat and watched it sunbathing for a bit – we didn’t get too close though, as apparently they can bite! Having seen a seal, we were well satisfied, so started our way back but noticed a couple standing a little way away and thought they might have noticed something interesting, so went in their direction. Kerry suddenly yelped and we realised we’d nearly stepped straight on a sleeping seal – how we hadn’t noticed it before, I don’t know, as it was massive! After having a look at that one, we then found that the people we’d seen were looking at another two seals, one of them was quite small. We were really excited and then saw another seal swimming over to where we were standing; it climbed out of the water and looked very seal-like! It was great!

With the seal excitement over, we headed back to the town and popped into some of the little shops (of which there were about 6!). Back at the hostel, we sat down in the lounge and were given a cup of free soup – why do free things taste better?!

After a bit of a chill out and another quick wander around the town, I settled in the lounge with some of the others and we watched some movies on the tv – they have a VHS player and a ridiculously large number of videos (I’d forgotten about how annoying it is when people don’t rewind the tapes!). So we had a good evening in before heading to bed.