Day 12 - Kaikoura

Kia ora!

Kaikoura is a town located on a peninsula known for its wildlife viewings.  The tourism industry there revolves around dolphin, whale, seal, and albatross cruises.  I am scuba certified and I hadn't had a chance to do anything scuba/snorkeling related in a long time and this seemed like the perfect place to do it.  I was waffling between dolphin or seal swim and settled on a fur seal swim.  Lance can't do any diving with me since he has a ruptured ear drum, so he decided to take James for a hike around the peninsula while I was gone.

After waking up at the holiday park (rude woman at the front desk looked at me like I was an idiot when I asked where the drinking water spigot was- apparently they aren't called spigots here and I was somehow supposed to know that) we headed to the local iSite to get information on things to do before my seal swim.  I'm not sure if I've said this previously, but iSites are information centers in each town that are supported partially by the town and partly by the NZ's government.  They have lots of handy free maps, souveniers, and helpful people.  They can also book excursions for you if you'd like (for free)..

At the iSite we found a short bushwalk to kill some time before the seal swim, but it was so stinking hot that we didn't get far.

I used up my third botanic gardens on a Lavender Farm outside of town.  I thought it was lovely.  Lance thought, well, that it was a lavender farm.  He's not really a 'stop and smell the roses after rolling around in a field of lavender' type of guy.  I spoke with the owner for a bit and his grandfather started the original farm in the Wanaka area (where we were 3 days prior) and he had opened the one in Kaikoura.  The gift shop had so much amazing lavender stuff, but as we were tight on suitcase space I didn't get anything.  But I will say it had the best smelling bathroom I've ever been in.

They also had a shaded area with some lambs, which fascinated James (because he hasn't seen enough sheep).

They also had a neat shaded area with some lawn games to play.  Lance refused to play tree stump tic-tac-toe with me, stating, "I refuse to play tic-tac-toe because there is no challenge to it."  Well then.

 

Not amused.

After a picnic lunch under a large tree among the lavender, we headed to the waterfront to do the seal swim.  Lance took James on a 2.5 hr hike around the peninsula while I did the swim.  He said it had spectacular views, but he wasn't able to take pictures because James fell asleep in the hiking backpack and he wasn't able to take it off to get the camera out.  Guess I'm useful to have around on hikes after all!  This is a picture I borrowed from online so you get the idea of where he hiked.  It's a beautiful grassy peninsula that sticks out in the middle of a large mountain range.

www.rankers.co.nz

I went on the seal swim with Seal Swim Kaikoura.  After getting all of our gear together, including very thick wetsuits for the chilly water (approx 60 degrees F), we went to meet the skippers who would take us to the seals.  The divers from earlier in the day didn't have very good luck finding seals.  The website makes it very clear that finding seals that want to swim with you is very hit or miss, since they are wild animals.  The skippers decided to take us to a location that was further away than usual but had a better chance of seeing the seals.  We passed by a pod of dolphins on the way there, so that was a bonus.

The New Zealand Fur Seal resides primarily in, um, New Zealand.  There used to be an estimated 2,000,000 fur seals but they were hunted almost to extinction (around 5,000).  They were then protected and their numbers are increasing again and are currently around 300,000.  When we arrived at the first location there were about two dozen seal pups that were ADORABLE.  The captains said they were about two weeks old and about a foot long.  They were just romping around all over the rocks, barking, probably driving their mothers crazy.

The seals at the first location were not really in the mood to swim with us, however, so after a numbing 15 minutes in the water we all got back on the boat and headed for a different place.  The seals at the second location were feeling more friendly after they warmed up to us.  I tried staying away from the rest of the group since the guide said the seals like it calm and quiet.  I was rewarded with a couple seals all to myself.  I didn't make any attempt to swim towards them, I just relaxed and let the current take me however close the seals allowed.  This turned out to be pretty close- I could have reached out and touched them!

I was wearing the GoPro, but I was a total dummy and apparently turned it off when I thought I was turning it on because all my videos are of empty water, and I know I got some right in front of the camera.  Ugh, I was very disappointed.  I was able to put a couple videos together into something semi-interesting.  But video or no, the experience was something I don't think I will have the chance to do again.

The boat ride home was beautiful!  The coast of mountains was glowing in the sun and the ocean was turquoise.  No complaints here.

I met up with Lance at the car and he took me to an easy overlook on the peninsula so we could get some pictures.

We left Kaikoura and headed south towards Christchurch for the last stop of our looong journey.  We didn't quite make it to Christchurch since James was sick of the car, so we stopped at a holiday park in Leithfield.  We had canned soup for dinner and a hedgehog trotted right through our campsite so I'm going to call that a win.

I hope that entry made your day, Garo.

Day 11 - Glacier Country cont.

The next morning (after a horrible night with sand flies filling the car and buzzing and biting all night) we left very early for Franz Josef Glacier.  We arrived at the same time as the ranger and had the entire valley to ourselves.  Way nicer than the Fox Glacier with all its bus loads of people.  And this hike was through the valley instead of next to it.  It was so quiet and peaceful.

As we were leaving, people were taking chunks of ice from the river.

The rivers at both glaciers were milky white from all the sediment ground up by the glaciers.

Large chunk of glacier

They had pictures along the way that shows where the glacier was in 2008 and how it had receded pretty far in 2012 and then more to the current position.  But the ranger told us that he was talking to a local who has lived there for a long time, and back in the 70s the glacier was actually receded further than it is now.  So it ebbs and flows every year.

Another cool fact from the ranger was about the bridge a couple of kilometers away from the glacier.  The current bridge is actually the second bridge built over the first one, because there used to be such a deep gorge under it that a plane flew under it back in the 70s.  The glacier creates so much sediment in the river, however, that it filled up the gorge and they had to build a new bridge 5 stories higher than the old one.  This is a picture of the current bridge.  Crazy, right?

From here we hauled it on the six hour drive from the west coast to Kaikoura on the east coast, driving through jade country, then gold country.  NZ had a pretty prominent gold rush and little towns popped up all over because of it.  Apparently we went through 'the town with the widest main street in New Zealand'.  It was very exciting.

Took a drive break in the town of Hokitika, where they have a Driftwood & Sand Sculpture competition every year.  That would be fun to see!

We are getting to the end of the trip.  Only a couple entries left!  Phew.

Days 10 - Glacier Country

After driving through the Gates of Haast, we arrived in Glacier Country.  We had hoped to hike on the actual glacier, but because of the dangers of hiking near the base (rock falls, flash floods), they only allow people to either hike on their own to a certain distance from the base, or with a guided company on the actual ice itself.  If you hike on the ice itself with a guided company you have to take a helicopter to the top of the glacier.  Unfortunately we couldn't find any company that would allow James to do it with us.  Bummer!  So we just did the hike with the rest of the tourists to the base of Fox Glacier.  The conditions change daily so the sign at the beginning tells you how close the current path allows you to be.  You hike along the valley carved by the glacier.  They have several 'no stopping' sections of the hike because of the possibilities of rock slides.  For some reason these were always on the steep uphill sections of the hike.  Tiring.  Some people decided the rules didn't apply to them, including this one woman in a leopard print corset, leather pants, and heels, who was doing sexy poses in front of the glacier.  Interesting.

Rock slides

We decided to do Franz Josef Glacier the next morning since it was a little further north, so in the meantime we tried to do a hike with good views of Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand.  Mount Cook was not cooperating, however, and was covered in clouds.  We did the hike around Lake Matheson anyway but without the view it was kind of anti-climactic.  Click on the link to see what it is supposed to look like.  Would have been spectacular.

The area has several natural hot springs so we went to Glacier Hot Pools at the end of the day and relaxed.  It was just what we needed to recharge our batteries.  James thoroughly enjoyed swimming around in the warm water, watching mom and dad pop up and down.