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After writing the last blog, we got fed up with being inside so we put on tons of layers and decided to brave the wind and rain to head out to the same baby seal colony that we had visited on our last Kaikoura visit. This time there were even more, probably about a hundred of the cute little b*ggers mucking about in the pool below the waterfall, amongst the rocks, flapping up the river and doing somersaults feet in front of us. This is a special wee place and the seals were quite content with us standing about watching them and trying desperately to get a photo of them (they move too damn fast). The locals try not to tell too many people about it cos they don't want all the tour buses rolling in for a scenic stop along the way, so it was nice to have been let in on the 'secret'!
We drove around the peninsula and to various lookout points enjoying the rugged landscape on this rough day and found adult seals snoozing on the beaches along the side of the road. New Zealand fur seals are everywhere along this coast which is nice to see. They were close to extinction in the 1800s but now they're everywhere so it's pretty cool that they're so highly thought of with the locals.
The following day yet again we were denied our whale watching trip. The weather was good, but out at sea there were still some pretty big swells. So we decided we had to do something with our time in Kaikoura so we went on a sunset horse trek at the base of Mount Fyffe. This was a pretty cool wee activity. The both of us are beginners and the guides gave us pretty tame horses that knew the route which meant we didn't have to do a whole lot of work, basically making sure we stayed on. They took us through bush, through muddy tracks, along a river channel and through several streams and pretty deep bits of river. We were out for a good long time and got to attempt a few trots which were good fun.
We were due to head to the North Island the following day but instead we changed our plans to try one last attempt in seeing the whales. We stayed another night in Kaikoura and rebooked onto the whale watching. Our waiting paid off. On our 7th booking we finally got on (7th times a charm eh??). The sea had calmed enough and we were allowed to go out on one of the boats. This was great as they showed us animations of the topography of the area underwater which really satisfied us geeks and we quickly came across our first sperm whale. We waited until it dived then went on the search for more. We saw 5 in total, a few dolphins and loads of massive albatross. Now I used to not understand bird-geekiness but these fellas are impressive. The sea was still a little rough and by the time we were getting off Claire was a bit green in the face and ready to find her land-legs again despite all the sea-sickness tablets but we soon cured this with a $10 Thai lunch! So success we finally saw them. And they were worth the wait.
We joined the hostel managers Mark and Ruth (who were great by the way - they make you love Kaikoura and make the hostel a great place) to the local pub quiz that night and came in 3rd place to win a bar tab! Woohoo! After all that we had became quite fond of Kaikoura and were sad to be leaving the charming little town. But onwards we went and onto the next leg of our trip - the North Island. We got the ferry which travelled through the sounds, across the Cook Straight and parked up in Wellington harbour. Wellington - New Zealand's capital is a great city that seems to have a good bit of charm, and is the home to loads of Lord of the Rings stuff.
On Saturday we had a few afternoon drinks before going round to the Westpac Stadium where we got to see the second test of the All Blacks vs France. The wind howled, the rain beat down, it was cold, but it was good craic. Final score All Blacks 14, France 10. woop woop. The kiwis sitting beside Claire were shocked that we weren't supporting France, but we were trooping the All Black flag! Strange that one, who likes the French outside France??!! The Haka was awesome too, the chant echoing round the ground, and it was probably the highlight as the weather didn't help the players or fans get properly into it!
Short and sweet this compared to previous entries but we've got a bit of time to update things so we thought we might as well stick another one on now. Hopefully we'll have another interesting addition soon!
Lots of Love Claire and Chris xx
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