Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
It was not nice to have to wake up at 6am on my departure day from Christchurch to Kaikoura, as we had to meet outside Base Backpackers which was a 5 minute walk away at 7am, upon my arrival outside the hostel I met Greg who I had seen at various stops all along my Kiwi Experience trip, he was sitting on a ledge next to this homeless guy who was talking loads of random crap to him and left shortly after I arrived, the bloke was creeping him out a little I think, lol! The bus didn't arrive until about 7.30am, half an hour after the scheduled time, Poncey was the driver once again which I was quite pleased about as I got on well with him and he was a cool driver, it also meant that I would be travelling all the way up to Auckland with him because I was only going to be staying one night at all the following stopovers. He did come up with some lame excuse as to why he was late; I forget what it was now however. We then did a loop of the hostels in the area to pick up further passengers, which for some was their first day on the Kiwi Experience.
We eventually began to leave Christchurch at nearly 8.30am as we travelled towards Kaikoura which wasn't too far away, we travelled across the northern Canterbury plains, making a half hour stop in a town called Cheviot where we stopped for refreshments. We were essentially making a quick dash for Kaikoura so we were there by lunch time so we could experience the area in the afternoon, as there were whale watching, fishing and dolphin swimming activities in the afternoon for those that wanted to do or could afford to do it. So from Cheviot we drove directly to Kaikoura, the township juts out from under the shadow of the seaward Kaikoura Range. The peninsula boasts unforgettable snow clad mountains rising from the sea to tower above the township at heights of over 2,600 metres. Fishermans cottages, boats and boat-houses huddle along the more exposed southerly coastline today. Kaikoura means to eat crayfish and is a cute little fishing town.
Before we entered the township we went to see some seals at a nearby location which were leisurely lounging on some rocks as seals do without a care in the world, we were able to get as close as we wanted to the seals but it was advisable that we didn't encroach by more than a few metres just in case. They were such adorable creatures and were extremely photogenic. After our brief stop here we continued on to the hostel Top Spot which is where I stayed along with the majority of others, it was a very poor hostel, it was only small but had terrible kitchen facilities and the bathrooms weren't much better either, the dorms were ok and had quite a bit of space but it was still a bad hostel. When we checked in we also had to purchase our ferry ticket for the next day and the Chinese women taking everyone's payment was lapping up the amounts of money we were handing over. Once checked in there were quite a few people that were going on trips so they all rushed off.
I wasn't doing a paid activity but had been given a recommendation to walk the Kaikoura Peninsula walkway, so I spoke to Greg about it and he was interested as well, so after he had finished heating up his Spag Bol leftovers from the night before to have for his lunch, we waited for his cousin Stewart and his girlfriend Rosie to arrive before we set out to see what Kaikoura had to offer. Firstly we went down to explore the town centre and called in a few shops as Greg needed to buy a disposable camera, then we went to the I-site to get information on our walk where I bumped into somebody that I had met at my hostel in Queenstown, so I chatted to him while Greg and the gang gathered information from the help desk and then said goodbye as we headed back to the hostel to jump in the car which Greg's cousin had been driving around New Zealand in, we moved all their stuff around in the back of the car and squeezed ourselves in the boot in very uncomfortable positions, and then drove to the seal colony that Greg and I had been to earlier in the day as Stewart and Rosie hadn't seen it, but it was worth a second look and the lazy seals hadn't even moved an inch in the few hours since we last saw them. From here we drove to the start of the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway and began the walk along the coastline spotting various seal colonies along the way as well as many people kayaking in the waters getting up close to them, the walkway offered stunning views out to sea and over to the mountains in the distance, we sat on the hillside to take in the views for a short while before Stewart and Rosie walked back to get their car and Greg and I walked back into the township. It took about an hour to get back into town but it was a very enjoyable walk exploring the scenic surroundings of the small fishing town, when we returned to Top Spot we agreed to meet up at 7.30pm for dinner, which gave me about 1 hour of free time, so I had to nip down to the shop to get some milk and also went on my netbook quickly before I met up with them.
We decided to ponder along the main street in the town to check out the local restaurants to see where we were going to have dinner, are checking out a couple we decided on this one pub in the centre of the street which was doing a special of rump steak and chips for NZ$14 so we all opted for that and I ordered a cider to go with it but not without chaos, I was told that I wasn't even allowed to order my meal without ID as it was a licensed premises, which meant I had to go all the way back to the hostel which was up a steep hill to get my ID before I could get my meal and drink, as I had accidently forgotten to bring it out with me, so I trekked back to the hostel and back again then was able to get my food and drink, the cider was good and it was the first time that I had ordered cider since I had been away as it is usually a lot more expensive than beer but it was a similar price here so I took the plunge and ordered it, and I wasn't disappointed. The meal was also top notch. After our dinner the pub hosted a quiz night and was the only place in town that seemed to be open past 9pm it was like a ghost town, so most people were congregating in this one pub so there was lots of healthy competition for the bar tab prize.
There were 6 long rounds in total, on various topics like music, trivia, films etc and then one really random round on Justin Beiber, who really got abused by most people in the pub that night. Our team decided to our joker to get double points on the first round of general knowledge and it paid off as we were joint third after round one which meant that we had a beer off, to see who would get 2 extra bonus points, the beer off entailed the four players from each team standing side by side at the bar with our hands behind our backs all with a small glass filled with a third of a pint of beer, and a tiny straw in it, we then had to suck the glass dry before the next person in the team would do the same, it was then the team that finished the beer first that won the bonus points, I started proceedings for our team and got us off to a flying start by being a few seconds ahead of the first player in the competing team only to be let down by my team as we eventually lost. We were nowhere near as good in the remaining rounds which meant we gradually slipped down the leader board to a mid table finish, it was still a really enjoyable nights entertainment as there was a really good atmosphere about the place, once the quiz had concluded there was nothing else left to do in town so we all went back to the hostel, which had a rich aroma of seafood filling the kitchen as those that had been fishing had been cooking the crayfish that they had caught to eat for dinner. Once back at the hostel everyone got some sleep as it was approximately 11.30pm.
Love Toby xxx
- comments