Travel Journal:

New Zealand - A Taste of Kaikoura


A Taste of Kaikoura 2006-11-16
 
I slept a little later today than normal. My phone alarm went off at 7am and I got up and went to the bathroom. But it was COLD! so I went back to bed and got up for real at 8. I packed up my stuff and put it in a storage locker ($2). I headed to the i-site to check out what time low tide was with doing the peninsula walk in mind. Low tide was at 8:30am so 10:30am would be the optimum time to do it.

I had packed a breakfast bar, an apple, some water, my camera and binoculars. The walk started by the seal colony, which was supposed to be a 45 minute walk. I made a few stops along the way and it took me over an hour to get there. I was excited to see the seals. Some of the big attractions in Kaikoura are whale watches and swimming with dolphins. I've been on whale watches in Cape Cod and Hawaii so it's not that interesting to me to spend $125 on. And I just don't care to swim with dolphins, but seals are a new experience. I had thought about doing the sea kayaking trip that is called "seal kayaking" but I was feeling a little too worn down and cheap to do a half day $70 tour.

Well, the seal colony was sort of lacking seals. There was one big one very far up on the shore. Then you could walk out on the rock bed and out across the water there was more rocks where I could see a few seals  with my binoculars. Oh, well. It was a nice day and a lovely view so the walk wasn't wasted.

I was already a bit tired so I didn't bother with the walk since I could see it started straight up the cliffs. On my way back I took some photos of some sea birds. It's funny how they start walking the other way when you approach, as if they never saw you. I also went on the old wharf, and there on the cement edge was a huge seal. That's the closest I got.

Once I got back to town it was noon and I was starved. I went to the Old Craypot cafe for some seafood. I got the scallop starter for $16.50. It was scallops over a risotto with a spicy chili creme fraiche. There was an entree version for $30 with twice as many scallops. It was so good that I should have gotten the entree. The starter was filling for lunch but it I would have been willing to stuff myself to taste more. I also got a soda and my total bill was $20.

After that I did a little shopping. I found a surfy clothing store that carries a bunch of NZ brands like RPM, Coastlines, Independent. I bought myself a t-shirt and a sleeveless sweatshirt with nz motifs on it for $145. After that I browsed in some more shops and resisted buying ice cream. I ended up spending an hour at the internet cafe ($5) sorting out some stuff at home. Then I stopped at the i-site to buy 2 postcards and stamps ($5). I wrote them out and put them in the mailbox. On my way back to pick out my bags I saw a ton of people sitting on the rocky beach. The water didn't seem to cool so I took off my shoes and waded. It was cold but not as cold as up in the Coromandel. The stones were really hot too.

Anyway I headed back to the Albatross to pick up my bags and went to the bus stop. The bus was mostly empty but the driver told me a bunch of people had gotten off at Kaikoura. Yay for beating the crowd. It took a couple of hours to get to Christchurch through some pretty green  scenery. Once we got there I needed to find a place to stay. Previously I had used i-sites since they will call for you and I didn't want to pay for cell phone minutes. However there was no i-site nearby and I didn't want to walk with my heavy bags to enquire so I had to call. base backpackers was the closests but I was told they were "chock a block" which I took to mean full. Then I called Frausenhousen (sp) which was a women's only hostel a few blocks away. They had a dorm bed available for $23. Sounds good to me!

The hostel is in an old house and I was given the tour. The room had 4 bunks of which 2 were taken so I got a bottom bunk. As I was organizing my stuff my roommates came in. It was an woman (probably mid 30's) and her mother from Seattle. They got to Auckland a day after me and were leaving a few days later. They are travelling by car and we had a long talk. After that they went to cook their dinner and I went for a walk to buy mine.

My first impression of Christchurch was favorable. It's got a lot of older style buildings like you'd see in many sections of new york with a mix of restaurants, bars, and shops. I went down a few streets that were totally dead and many cafes were already closed and it was only 8pm. I finally found some busier streets with people looking like they were going out. I ended up at a jap/korean place. I ordered a tempura entree. It took forever to come out. In general this joint was slow. A couple came in after me and left after the lone waiter hadn't come to take their order after 15 minutes. Finally he came out with a plate with a huge stack of tempura (and nothing else). It was pretty good except the shrimp had some tentacly things on them that were unappetizing and there was some octopussy looking stuff that I wouldn't eat. However it was only $15.50 and I was full so I was happy.

As I walked back to the hostel, I called my friend Andy to make plans to meet up. We decided to meet the weekend after next to do Te Anau/Milford Sound. Andy's going to check out what we should do. I got back a little after 9pm and I was totally beat so I put my jammies on and got ready for bed.

 
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