Days 111, 112 and 113

We arrived to a foggy Kaikoura after a brief stop in Blenheim for a 'Mac n cheese' lunch. Our hostel the Dolphin Lodge was one of the best we have stayed in so far, and we had a view of the sea and mountains from our room. We decided to enter a Local Pub quiz that night with some people we met at the hostel. It was going well until the group decided not to go with my answer on a Biology question, which of course they then got wrong costing us second place and a $25 bar tab! I wasn't too upset though as King Kenny's reds performance had put me in a great mood.

We had a short lie-in the next morning before deciding to walk around the Kaikoura penisular. The weather was pretty decent although the wind was a bit fresh, so we set out for the four and a half hour round trip. we stopped for lunch at a little hut on the beach front selling Kaikoura's famous Crayfish. We ordered a Crayfish fritter and fresh fish fillet and shared the two dishes which were both brilliant. Our walk took us over a boardwalk that went straight over the local Fur Seal colony. It was great to get so close to the seals, although they smell even worse than Sean in the morning!!!! The rest of the walk kept the camera busy (a common problem in New Zealand) as we went from Seals, to the cliff tops, down through Hobbition-like hills and round to thick forest complete with fairytale mushrooms. We treated ourselves to steak from the local butchers that night, although amazingly the bill only came to £2.50 each including mushrooms and wedges!!!

It was another early start for Kaikoura's number one activity...Whale watching. We had picked a great day as the sun was shining, and blue sky was all around. The tour normally spots 1-2 Whales and the main focus is finding the Sperm Whale, which is the biggest toothed Whale and 4th largest overall. Kaikoura is the only place in NZ where you can find Sperm Whales. This is because they hunt in around 1000m of water which is normally located miles away from the mainland. Kaikoura however has a steep drop (Kaikoura Canyon) off just out from the shore and as a result is located on a major Whale migration path. There is also a chance of spotting Humpback and Killer Whales although that is pretty rare. Our catamarang was equipped with a flatscreen TV to give us information about the Whales, but we hardly had a chance to sit down before the shout of 'Whale!' came from the spotter. The Sperm Whale was enormous and stayed on the surface for about 5 minutes before giving everyone the iconic tail wave and disappearing back to the depths to hunt for its favourite food of squid. We were on the sea for about 3 hours and got to see 5 Whales, a 6ft Mako shark and three different types of Albatross! Once back on shore we were both thrilled to have seen so many Whales and it had helped make Kaikoura one of our favorite places so far.