Bush & Sea Boutique Bed & Breakfast Kaikoura

... br>22 Deal Street
Kaikoura
New Zealand

It's been a while since our last entry... At the moment, there is not much going on, since we are still here in Kaikoura. We enjoy working at the hostel so much that we have decided to stay here until the end of December and celebrate Christmas together with Steve and Kelly, the hostel managers, and Gavin, another cleaner from England. Afterwards, we will travel around the South Island and then return to Kaikoura to continue ...

... to pick me up to take me back to Chirstchurch, so explored the town.. it has one street!! Had lunch & sat on the beach for awhile, and then the bus arrived & I was heading home again.

Such a long day, I decided to chill out in the evening & get an early-ish night, for tomorrow is going to be last day of lie-in's for awhile I fear.. the tour starts Tuesday and I'm sure they'll want me up early!

I'm dreaming... whales and dolphins.. the ocean...

... 8221;--hoping not to get thrown
overboard and suddenly we have fishing rods in our hands, baits on
our lines, a brief instruction from our two guides, and all six of us
are pulling in sea perch after sea perch! Often we are nabbing two
at a time, swinging them toward Ahab who then is cleaning and
expertly filleting them right behind us—quite an operation!
Seagulls, other native birds, and the regal albatross are now
Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand carlaandmike

... by the beach and surrounded by mountains. It was very pretty. We went to ask about whale watching and they told us the waves are too high. So we checked into a hostel, went to the supermarket, made some dinner and played with the incredibly fluffy cat., hoping that we can go whale watching tomorrow.

The next day we checked out and drove down to the penninsula, where we admired the sleeping seals. We walked up to a viewpoint on the top of a cliff, where we had a fabulous ...

... Before you are even under water you could see dusky dolphins jumping and performing acrobatics in the emerald waves around you. Looking under water was an incredible experience as the dolphins swam up and around you bobbing and darting and investigating. We were told there were between 200 and 500 in the pod that was surrounding us and we were completely gobsmacked, shocked, amazed, thrilled that there were so many! And they were so ...

Blenheim is definetly a low key kinda town. Well, I shouldn't really judge since I arrived on a Saturday when some businesses are closed. I just had a really boring time there. New Zealand is still old fashioned in the sense that they still enjoy their weekends, therefore closing many stores on Sundays as well. Which means travelers like me are bored ...

... give these massive creatures a run for their money and at worst can hold them down threatening their survival as they need oxygen regularly. Based on the local information we are expecting 2 whales to be in the neighbourhood who typically dive for 45 minutes and re-surface for 10 minutes to re-oxygenate. Mr Dead-pan tells us through our headsets that he has spotted a whale - who he names - apparently this one is an old bachelor - still living in home ...

... deep for around 45 minutes. Soon it was time for us to climb in to the 4 seater helicopter (pilot plus 3). This was the first time either of us had been in a helicopter. It was amazing and very smooth. It was not long before the pilot spotted a whale - the two whale watch boats converging on it was a clue. It was around the same length as each of the two boats that were tracking it. And we could easily see its full ...

... got Katie's underwater photos back and considering the speed of the duskies swimming around her I think she did really well to get a few good photos, check them out below!)









The ...

... enlightening. While making lots of ridiculous noises we deemed interesting to attract their attention we encountered myriads of the playful little guys in their element. You could discern the old ones with their battle scars and wise eyes sizing you up as they gracefully passed you from the young ones with their mischievous sparkling eyes. These were very fun to swim in circles with or dive down with or just swim side by side with. Afterwards we ...