We think it would be appropriate to open this update with a statement like "Wow! Kaikoura, what a place!". We are sure that there can't be anywhere else on earth like it? It has to be the best place in the world to encounter marine mammals. If there is anywhere better and you've been there - then let us know and we'll book our tickets right now! This town on the East coast of the South Island is originally a Maori settlement and was soon discovered to be a place of abundant sea-life. It is special because the continental shelf is very close to the shore. Only a couple of kilometres out to sea, the depth drops suddenly from a couple of hundred metres to a couple of thousand. The deep water supports a plethora of life, from microscopic plankton to fish, sharks, dolphins and whales. The European settlers soon learned this and sadly established a whaling station from where they hunted these enormous sea creatures. Fortunately this is now banned and the area is a centre for eco-tourism. It goes without saying that the tour companies which operate from here are very strictly regulated so as not to harm the wildlife.
We spent the morning of our first day walking along a beautiful track just above the rugged coastline. To give you an idea, it looks a bit like the North Cornish coast but in addition has a stunning backdrop of mountains a couple of thousand metres high! Oh, and the sun is blue and the sun is shining, which is nice! The cliff tops are green and the ocean views are excellent. We walked a circuit, out along the cliff top and back along the beach. It was a wonderful walk but got even better when on the way back we spotted some Fur Seals basking on the rocks. These chubby but adorable creatures had been out fishing for the day and were catching some rays in groups of four or five. We were able to creep across the rocks to get within a couple of metres of them. There was nobody else to be seen, just us and the seals. We just hung out and watched them for an hour or so. We snapped just a couple of pictures of their cute heads popping up from their fat bodies and their fins waving in the air like they were saying hello. Our presence didn't seem to bother them as long as we maintained a couple of metres separation. A great way to start the day!
For the afternoon we booked ourselves on a trip to encounter some Sperm Whales. Quite rightly, the company that operates this trip does try to lower your expectation of what you will see on the tour. Whales do not perform to a strict time schedule! (But the company still offer an 80% refund if you don't see any, so we hoped there was a good chance?). Expecting nothing, we jumped aboard the hi-tech catamaran in which we were going to chase some whales. The ship was fully equipped with a million dollars worth of sonar detecting equipment, a huge video screen to relay information to the passengers and a very entertaining guide on the microphone. The video screen was particularly impressive for showing the underwater geology in 3D graphics. We watched in awe as in a matter of seconds we sailed off the continental shelf (!) into deep waters, and the depth-reading metre went bonkers to read from hundreds of metres to thousands!
Whale-chasing is an exciting business, the crew use sonar to detect when they think the whales are going to surface and roughly where-about. The boat then speeds across the water for a couple of minutes and we then look for a visual sighting. As the boat slows, the guide shouts over the microphone "everybody up on deck" and we rush from our seats, squeeze through the doors and go out into the viewing positions. It's a hectic time because a whale is under the water for about forty to sixty minutes but only surfaces for a few (five to ten) minutes to catch its breath. We are all keen to get a good view so waste no time.
We consider ourselves very lucky because we had some excellent encounters stopping four times and seeing six whales! The boat went quite close to the whale (15m) so you can see it breathing and spouting water though its blowhole. The Sperm whale is enormous so you also get a good view of the back and dorsal fin protruding above the surface. However, the best bit is when the whale arches its back, throws its enormous tail into the air and dives down into the depths! We've never seen anything like this! It's just like those great shots in "Free Willy", but just that little bit more exciting...!?! We did well too, because on a good day most tours only get to see 3 whales per trip. We doubled that!
It turned out that the whale-spotting was so successful that we had time to go and visit the Dusky Dolphins before returning to port. The TV show "Flipper" and a couple of Aquariums were about the closest that we'd come to these mammals before. This particular breed of Dolphins are quite rare but are one of the most inquisitive and playful. This was soon evident as we reached a "pod" of a few hundred and they began to swim in the bow wave of the boat. We had no idea that there would be so many in one place! They are a beautiful sight! They were very inquisitive of the boat and so entertaining, as they performed jumps, side flops and even aerial loops! (If you don't know what these are...um...errr...just have a guess, because we sure as hell can't show you!). They were so agile and capable in the water, they were easily able to keep up with our fast boat and we just wanted to jump in and play with them! (Do you see where this is headed...!??) (o:
The whale trip was really good fun but seeing the Dolphins at the end really confirmed that we HAD to do the "Swimming with Dolphins" encounter the next day or we'd never forgive ourselves! Forget the budget, that died a long time ago! However, getting on a tour is more easily said than done because there is a long waiting list to enter the Dolphins' world. The Department of Conservation strictly regulates the number of people that can enter the water in any one day. We were on the waiting list and hoping for a cancellation... we had to turn up early the next day in the hope that somebody decided to back-out. It was a clear but cold morning and we think for this reason a couple of people chickened-out. Too bad for them, lucky for us - we grabbed our opportunity!
Kitted out with full body wetsuits, flippers and snorkels we entered the water near a pod of about six hundred dolphins! Apparently there are some days when they are not interested in playing. However, once again our luck was in and we had a stunning experience! The Duskys were extremely interested in the Homosapien show! We think they were laughing at our clumsy attempts to swim. Either that or they were amused by the noises we were making (we were told that making noises and singing through our snorkels would attract them to us). Our group of twenty-something backpackers and fifty-something early retirees snorting and singing tunes through our snorkels sounded like a troubled pre-school playgroup! And let it be said that Emily attempted to belt out the French National Anthem in honour of her mother but promptly got charged at by 4 less-than-impressed Duskys...they do NOT like this song. Don't say we didn't warn you! However, we found that the best way to engage them was to take a deep dive down into the water. The moment you are one metre under the surface they dart around you four or five at a time. The best is when one starts to swim around you... They glide in orbit around your body while you desperately try to keep up by swimming in a circle. They also seemed to like making eye contact so would put their eye very close to your facemask.... This encounter was indescribable (sorry, we are trying!) and unforgettable. It is one of the best things we have ever done!
We drove away from Kaikoura the next day in a daze of happiness with what we had just seen and done. We found ourselves starting sentences with things like "Do you remember...." and "I can't believe it when....". Well, onward and upward, quite literally to the top of the South Island to a place near Nelson. By chance ;-) we had discovered Skydive Abel Tasman was willing to help us fulfill an ambition, to Skydive whilst here. (It's not that we really like skydiving, it's just that we weren't sure if the plane has to fly upside down in the Southern Hemisphere to go up, so we thought we had to give it a try!) We are tricky customers for drop zones because we are experienced Skydivers but do not have our equipment or any documentation with us... These guys were REALLY nice to us, checked our qualifications with our drop zone at home and loaned us some equipment for the day. We made just two jumps to check out the view. We could see the sea, river estuary, mountains and good NZ-greenery. Beautiful!
So having given the South Island a "good run for its money" we took the ferry to the North Island, from Picton to Wellington. We arrived at 1:00am and headed for Michelle and Tim's place in Petone not far from the port. Emily knows Michelle from way back in Spain when their two families spent a lot of time together. M&T were really kind and left their door open for us to come in and enjoy a solid roof over our heads for that night (and the next). We caught up with them the following evening after work (which is apparently what a lot of people do during the day?). Tim cooked an excellent meal and we enjoyed talking about life, the universe and everything over a couple of glasses of wine. We were delighted to hear that they are actually getting married in a couple of days. Hope you have a great day guys! Really sorry that we locked you out of your own house on our last day with you. Silly back-door latch. Doh!
Wellington was full of surprises because it turned out that Emily's Uncle Henry and Aunt Helga from California were in town, also on holiday. We called into the Novotel by chance to see if they might just be there at the same time as us, and there was Helga, stood in reception! Henry soon joined us and we were able exchange travel stories for a few hours. They were really sweet and treated us to dinner out! Thanks and "yum"!
After this welcome recuperation in Wellington we headed further North to the Tongariro National park to rough it once more in our splendid tent. The drive opened our eyes to the recent devastation caused by heavy rainfall and flooding (was this on the news in the UK? It was pretty major stuff!). For every few hundred metres of mountain road, half of the tarmac had been swept away. We were so grateful that we missed the bad weather here!
The main attraction of the National Park in summer is the excellent walks available (in winter it's a Ski resort). The region is Volcanic as the massive Mt. Ngauruhoe Volcano (2287m) dominating the skyline reminds you! The last eruption here was in 1995 when the surrounding area was covered in ash and sadly a train-load of people was killed when a bridge was swept down by pyroclastic flow.
Ot first glance, the area looks a bit barren but once you trek out into the shrubs there is a lot of beauty to be explored. We actually went there specially for The "Tongariro Crossing" who's route is billed as "the finest day walk in New Zealand". However, we stupidly mis-set the alarm clock (end of daylight saving and all that...) so we slept in and missed the bus! Oops! Our punishment was a 7-hour walk around some beautiful lakes and back to 'get fit' for the real hike the next day! The Tongariro crossing is a 17km route passing between Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Tongariro, a hard day's walk but well worth it. The path passes through old explosion craters with red-and-orange tinted rock. The lunch stop is by some beautiful turquoise lakes coloured by minerals and in an area of geothermal activity. It's most bizarre to sit eating your lunch with steam rising from the rocks around you! Once again we were very lucky with the weather making the scenery even more attractive.
We are now in Lake Taupo and Emily has booked a horse-trek because her legs have stopped working. Chris doesn't really 'do' horsey-things, so he's going to wait patiently like the loving boyfriend that he is!
That's all for now, but hey we've done pretty well for ourselves recently, eh? :-)
C and E