Dusky Lodge Kaikoura

To contain a run down of the week at Kaikoura staying at the Dusky Lodge. Friday 28th March 2008: FIRST DAY CLEANING. This was our first day cleaning at the Dusky Lodge hostel in Kaikoura and it went pretty well. We arrived early from the other hostel and at 9am all the cleaners congregated to start the day and be given jobs. We were put with a girl named Jenny from Cambridge how very unexpected. She showed us how to go about doing the rooms, changing the covers etc. It's all very simple apar...

Kaikoura is just north of Christchurch and is known for its wildlife. The ocean forms a funny ledge, which attracts many marine life including whales and dolphins. We decided to go whale watching and swim with the dolphins, all in one day. I knew there would be a high risk of seasickness, but decided it was worth the pain. Whale watching was early in the morning. We were herded onto a boat specifically designed for this purpose. The whales up on the surface of the water to get oxygen are sigh...

We had the afternoon in Kaikoura before heading south to Christchurch and decided to go on a coastal walk. I love walking along the coasts, especially when there are cliffs and beautiful weather. We had both on this day. At the start of the walk was a lookout with a couple of fur seals. They are really lazy animals that sun themselves, go fishing every once in awhile, and cool off in the water and swim about. The views from the top were really pretty. Kaikoura has some nice scenery because it...

Friday 28th March This morning we headed down the road to Dusky Lodge, where we'll be working part-time as cleaners in exchange for free board. It's a pretty big hostel - most of the larger hostels we've stayed in have lacked character but I like this one. There are several small lounges and kitchens, lots of outside seating areas, and an outdoor heated swimming pool and jacuzzi. We started cleaning at 9am - we were doing beds which was easy enough. Jen, who was showing us what to do, is from...

In July we headed down to Kaikoura for a weekend away and to get out on the whale watching boat. We caught the Bluebridge ferry from Wellington to Picton at the very sociable hour of 3am and tried to convince ourselves that the humming and vibrating of the boat engine would lull us into a wonderful sleep - yeah whatever!! We basically got shunted off our seats evert half hour or so because of the vibration. The best place to get comfortable was the bar which wasn't even bloody open, how rude!...

Friday 4th July 2008 We left Christchurch at 8am, catching the Magic Bus to Kaikoura. We chose Kaikoura as our next destination in NZ due to the whale watching. The journey took 4 hours and we stopped off on the way to watch a group of sunbathing seals. One of the group on the Magic Bus decided to get an up close photo next to one of the big seals. This backfired a little as the seal growled and lunged forward, making the person in question jump out of her skin and had us in fits of laughter....

Currently working for my accomodation at the Dusky Lodge here and surfing my brains out. Details later.

After a 3hr bus trip we hit Kaikoura, north of Christchurch! It was blue skies all the way! Coming into town along the coastal road we saw some Seals basking in the sun! The main attraction here is the wildlife. Because the ocean is so rich in minerals/nutrients, you get loads of sea life! There is up to 3-400 Dolphins that swim in the waters not to mention an abundance of different kinds of whales. There is also a large seal colony here too! We were really excited about swimming with the Dol...

On Saturday we'd booked to see the whales but the weatehr was soo bad we couldn't go out. SO instead we checked out of our minging hostel and Jo went horse riding. On sat nite we ate out at a lovely fish restaurant, and we ate crayfish..it was ok and we had a bottle of Mudhouse sav blanc...that was lovely. Well we had to toast Lee anne and Anton getting married. We stayed in a lovely place called Dusky lodge, but we had to stay in a dorm room - it was interesting, bnut think Jo and i will sti...

An early start for me, had to catch the Magic Bus at 7.45am. Didn't really know what to expect, so was very nervous. The bus driver (Dave) put my bag in under the bus and seemed really grumpy so first impressions weren't good.

Dave explained that he would book our accomodation and activities for us, so just have to follow his simple instructions for him to to be able to do that (of course some people didn't find them so simple......for example the swedish girl I was sat next to.....i'l...