Heading North to Kaikoura

After only one wet day this morning is dry, although cloudy and cool, as we head north from Christchurch.  We're on our way back to Picton and the ferry to Wellington.  We'll take a few days to get there.  We're going to travel along the inland leg of the Alpine Pacific Highway - we were on the seaward leg travelling south - to spend a couple of days in Kaikoura, about 200kms north of Christchurch.  We make our way north along SH1 and when we get past Amberley we turn inland.  At Culverden the road forks towards the West Coast.  This in the northern crossing to the western side of the South Island.  We're doing a short detour up this road into the alpine resort town of Hanmer Springs, where there are some hot springs and a ski resort and we think it will be a good place to stop for lunch. 



The countryside is hilly and the road winding.  We pass many sheep farms - New Zealand has more sheep than people - the farms are more intensive than we are used to seeing in Australia.  The scenery is great.  We've always said that the scenery on the North Island is "WOW!" scenery and the South Island has "OH MY GOD!" scenery.  So we take plenty of photos when there are places to stop.  We come across a number of photo stops where travellers pull off the road, but none of them are marked as lookouts.  It's chilly in Hanmer Springs, although we're only about 950m above sea level, and we find a cafe for some lunch.  There are plenty of people about and a lot of the accommodation is booked out.  The nearby mountains, Mt Una is 2,300m, have a dusting of snow on them.  Then its back in the car to make our way to Kaikoura on the coast.  Again the scenery is fantastic and the road is very winding.  A couple of hours later we are in Kaikoura.  

We stopped off here for lunch on our way south and it will be good to spend a bit of time here because there's plenty to do and see.  Kaikoura is a popular holiday town.  150 years ago is was a busy whaling port.  These days there's a thriving eco-tourism town.  There are whale-watching (Sperm, Humpback, Southern Right and Orca), dolphin watching and swimming, seal watching, fishing and walking activities; as well as plenty of restaurants to choose from.  The food specialties here are crayfish, mussels, whitebait and paua (abalone).  For dinner we opt for a seafood platter from The Craypot restaurant.  Very tasty - and the small one was plenty for both of us.

Friday 13th dawned with bright sunshine and the promise of a return to great weather.  The view from our cabin is of the mountains of the Seaward Kaikoura Range and they are covered with snow.  After breakfast we drive out to the Kaikoura Peninsula.  There's a big seal colony here, very close to the road.  Then we start walking.  We're walking most of the way around the peninsula.  It's very popular and there are plenty of tourists doing the same thing as us.  The start of the walk is quite steep as we climb up the cliff, and the path is paved.  The Peninsula was all under water until about 100,000 years ago.  Then is started to rise.  There are three plateaus.  The first rose about 100,000 years ago, then the second rose about 40,000 years ago and the final plateau, which is at sea level, rose about 1,400 years ago.  At that time this was an island and over the years the gap between the island and the mainland has silted over to form the Kaikoura Peninsula.  

We walk along the ridge of the second plateau about 30-50m above sea level.  Once we pass the first lookout point, we are walking on a (mostly) grassed track which is well maintained.  We pass by more seals - hundreds of them - down at the water, on rocks and on the beach.  We pass the Shearwater breeding site, but there aren't any there at the moment - summer is their peak time.  


Then it's on to Whalers Bay and the South Bay lookouts.  Great coastal scenery and all the time the inland view of the mountains is very impressive.  The round trip of our walk in bright sunshine took us about 90 minutes.  We stopped off at the Original Seafood Barbecue for lunch.  We stopped here a few days ago for whitebait and crayfish fritters, so this time we had seafood chowder and barbecued mussels - YUM!!

We've spent this afternoon relaxing in the sunshine and tomorrow we head back to Picton for the night before we catch the ferry back to Wellington on Sunday morning.