Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
It's 15th January at the end of a wonderful day watching whales and dolphins - more about that later. We left Franz Josef three day ago and decided to head back to the east coast to find the good weather and avoid the bugs a bit more. Our route took us up the West coast past some Gold mining towns which briefly prospered and then faded to fairly deserted places with a few hundred residents. It's amazing how well kept the history of the towns are though. Even a small one like Ross which we stopped at had an information kiosk (often in the local convenience store) and preserved buildings from the gold rush era. Ross had its Gaol in tact and an original miners house which the children loved although were a little scared at the thought of ever having to go to gaol if they ended up in such harsh conditions as we saw.
After 100 km up the coast we headed inland to our campsite for the night which was by far the best we have stayed at so far. It was fairly new and we were the only ones there bar another couple of families. The kitchen and lounge were very luxurious so Michele got the two eldest down to do some serious maths! As the photos show (Kaikoura album) we had the luxury of pitching the tent under cover which was lovely as it was peeing down (as it seems to all the time this side of the mountains). If the weather had been better we would have stayed longer but wanted to get back to the east coast.
14th - we left our luxurious campsite and headed into the mountains to cross via a path called Arthur's Pass. The road is steeped in history as it was back in 1864 when Arthur Dobson became the first white man to cross the alps in an attempt to open up a trade route between the East (Christchurch) and the west coast. Until then it was managed only by a few Maori hunting parties. Having driven over it (took us two and half hours) it is incredible the feat of engineering accomplished by inexperienced men in such harsh conditions - these are real mountains - not the north downs we are talking about. It was quite good timing as soon after the gold rush started on the west coast and the east coast gentry wanted a bit of the action and didn't want all the gold being shipped up to Wellington or worse over to Melbourne in Australia. The visitor centre in Arthur's Pass village had an example of a real horse drawn coach which crossed the divide for sixteen years before the railroad was built and took over. Connie was quite alarmed that the only person to die crossing the alps by coach was a baby when it was thrown from the coach making a particularly difficult river crossing.
Anyway we made it safely to Kaikoura, the kids played on the ever present campground playground and we slept well. Incidentally families are so well catered for in NZ. It is such a pleasure to know that they'll be family friendly conveniences like a family sized shower etc. These bonuses can only be understood when you've spent as much time in close proximity to each other as we have. Today also marked a significant moment in the Miller history. We have now been away over three weeks which is the longest we have been away from home together (did three weeks in France in 2006). It feels quite special and certainly feels like we have done a lot in that time.
15th - As I sit here in the campground kitchen writing this, scratching my mozzie bites and listening to a couple of French lads jabber on at full tilt I cannot think how to write about what we saw today. We had booked onto a whale watching tour as Kaikoura is one of the best sites in the world for seeing sperm whales and we thought the children (and us) would love it. All our expectations were surpassed. The sight of that huge fluke (tail) going over as the whale dives is just incredible and is really quite emotional. We saw two sperm whales surface, hang around for for ten minutes (breathing, pooing, that sort of thing) and then diving back down into the canyon below (often up to 700 metres deep) to continue the hunt for squid etc. the reason they hang out in these waters is because of the canyon which is hundreds of miles long but particularly deep around the coast off Kaikoura and that is where the sperm whales like to feed. The photos do not do them justice at all (and my camera didn't have the necessary muscle to take close up shots) but enlarged and cropped are terrific. On the way back in we saw a pod of dusky dolphins. I think the children loved these even more as they are so active and Meg was screeching at them! There were around 50 and we could have watched them all day. They seemed to dance around the boat and appeared to get great pleasure doing their somersaults and twists for us. It was wonderful to see wild animals doing their thing with no restrictions. Our children love the animal parks at home but nothing compares to seeing them for real in the wild. We saw a couple of wondering albatross which are just magnificent creatures and look like they really own the water out at sea.
Our day came to an end by going out to watch the seal colony lazing about on the rocks which was fab and made the day all the more special.
Bed now - moving on tomorrow.
- comments