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Christmas at Kaikoura
Entry 82 of 88 | show all | print this entry |
Tuesday 21st December - Day 238
On our way to Kaikoura , we stopped at a large supermarket in Christchurch to buy a few bottles of NZ wine to see us through Christmas, no corwds, no queues and no mince pies or Brandy cream. What sort of country is this?
The road to Kaikoura was busy and hugged the rocky coastline for the last 20kms. Kaikoura itself was also very busy, and we spent the rest of the day trying to sort out accomodation.
In an island overflowing with views to die for, Kaikoura and its peninsula is right up there with the best. The meeting place of ocean and mountains, where deep sea trenches collide with a shallow rugged coastline, before rising to the clouds and forming the mightily impressive Seaward Kaikoura Mountains.
If you're in the Isle of Man (if you're not unlucky) picture Langness and Derby Haven. Imagine being stood out on the tip of Langness on a clifftop about 250 feet up, theres no golfcourse, and you're looking back towards the airport. The houses in Derby Haven are in a similar position to the small tourist busy town of Kaikoura, and the curving beach is fairly steep and stoney. But instead of the airport there stands a range of snowcapped mountains 1600m high. Below you, on the rocks live a colony of NZ fur seals, and out to sea are sperm whales, dolphins and albatross. There's no McDonalds and no traffic lights. It's a special kind of place.
As a Christmas treat we'd pre-booked 3 nights in a self contained unit with more than 2 foot around the bed. It promised a great view and on inspection it had a great view, of the car park, so we cancelled.
The Panorama Motel had the only units with the view across the bay to the mountains, however, they had no units available until Christmas Day so we moved into a place called 'Sails' for four nights. A small but very nice self contained unit on the Esplenade, but with no view.
Point Kean is the tip of the peninsula, there's a car park, a zigzag path to the cliff top and a NZ fur seal colony. The vast majority of the colony live on the various rocky outcrops around the headland, close enough to see, but made inaccessible by the tide. However, a number of large males choose to bask on the rocks right by the carpark, and as long as you abide by all the signs asking you not to get closer than 10m, they are completely unperturbed by the camera wielding tourists.
Having parked up, the first thing that hit us on leaving the car was the smell. The seals secrete a waterproofing oil and it produces a particularly pungent aroma, its a special blend of the smells of wet fur and pedigree chum. It also indicates the nearby presence of a seal, and this particular bull couldn't have looked more comfortable, lying as he was, fully stretched out on his back, in an oblivious to anything, contented semi coma (it's the breeding season).
Having watched for a while, we wandered up the clifftop for sunset. The panoramic views from this vantage point are breathtaking. Cloud had been building and darkening above the mountains since late afternoon and had now continued out into the bay where rain and thunderstorms were developing. Down the coast, though, the skies were still clear, and the sun was sinking unhindered.
Sat alone on the clifftop we were treated to the most incredible natural light show. The cloud had formed into a black mass that was now a visible sheet of rain drifting acrosss the bay. This not only generated a vivd rainbow, but also ground shaking thunder and forked lightening, and just as we thought it couldnt get any more spectacular, the last rays of sun turned the menacing sky orange then pink.
Large droplets of rain, escorted us back to the car in the gathering gloom, and we just escaped a serious wetting.
Expenses: Food and drink 117.20 lunch 14 groceries 12.95 inet 2 accom 85
Wed Dec 22nd - Day 239
It's thought that somewhere between AD 1000 - 1200, the Polynesian ancestors of todays Maori first arrived in NZ and within a 100 years these setlers had spread far and wide, clinging to the warm coastal areas form the top of North Island to the bottom of South Island.
They hunted Moa (a large flighless bird, twice the size of an Ostrich and weighing up to 240kg), other flightless birds and fur seals. All unaccustomed to humans and a doddle to catch.
By 1400, the supply was unsurprisingly disappearing fast and the Maori turned to gardening and fishing. This required planning and teamwork, resulting in the formation and rise of Maori tribes.
Dwindling resources meant an increase in the inter tribe conflict and led to increasingly sophisticated fortifications (Pa). Many examples still exist today.
The first contact with Europeans occured at Golden Bay at the top of South Island. In 1642 2 Dutch ships sailing from Indonesia in search of the Great South Land and its treasures were involved in a misunderstanding with local Maori. Four of commander Abel Tasmans crew were killed, and he sailed away never to return, leaving only the Dutch name 'Nieuw Zeeland' or New Sealand.
127 years passed before Europeans returned in 1769. James Cook and frenchman Jean de Surville both managed, despite some violence, to communicate with Maoris and this time NZ's link to the outside world proved permanent.
Further French expeditions took place and Cooky revisited twice between 1773-77. Whalers and Sealers started visiting in the 1790's and the first of dozens of missionaries founded the Bay of Islands in 1814. Here the small town of Kororareka (now called Russell) was the New England whalers favourite stop off for R&R (drink and sex), much to the disgust of the missionaries who called it 'the hellhole of the PAcific'.
In 1840 there were about 70,000 Maoris and 2,000 european settlers, by 1850 this had risen to 22,000 with the formation of six new settlements in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, New Plymouth and Nelson.
Mass immigration up to 1880 coincided with a booming economy which was halted by NZ's Long Depression. In 1840 the 'Treaty of Waitange' was signed between Maori tribes who valued the profit and prestige Europeans bought, and the Europeans who thought the Maoris couldn't handle the increasing number of settlers.
The English version promised Maoris full equality as British subjects in exchange for complete rights of governemnt. The Maori version promised that Maoris would retain their chieftainship and their local rights of government.
These different understandings were only a small problem at first, with only 2000 settlers, but as their numbers grew so did the conflict, and its still a big issue today.
The Maori tribes didn't go down without a fight and between 1843 and 1872 the NZ land wars raged. Infact Maori resistance was one of the most formidable waged against European expansion. They won several battles but were eventually ground down by numbers and resources.
The Kaikoura peninsula is also rich in over 800 years of Maori history. Kaikoura means meal of crayfish. Maoris believe the demigod Maui braced his foot while hauling in an immense fish that became North Island.
There are at least 15 Pa sites on the peninsula, where some fierce battles took place. Today, the Ngai Tahu people occupy the area.
Ours was a quiet day in Kaikoura, walking the coast and watching seals, but the mad weather continues with reports of flooding in Cgristchurch, a small tornado in Auckland and an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the richter in Te Anau.
Expenses: Accom 85 inet 6 groceries 30.75
Thursday Dec 23rd - Day 240
6.15am, and we were sat in the 'Whale Watch Kaikoura' video room watching a short film about sperm whales. We both thought that quiet little Kaikoura might have several small boat owners offering sporadic whale watching trips, how wrong we were. The town and its 3,483 residents is thriving on its booming tourism based around observing its unique marine wildlife. A staggering 1.4 million people visited Kaikoura last year.
There is only one whale watch company, they are Maori owned and its a very well oiled machine with a smart new centre and carpark.
Large, stable and fast catamarans offer trips throughout the day, weather permitting. By 7am, we'd been coached to South Bay on the other side of the peninsula and were heading out to sea. In a boat not a coach.
The Kaikoura sea has an abundance and variety of marine life rarely seen in one place. This is due to the combining of warm water currents from the subtropics with colder, nutrient-rich waters from the south. Sperm whales can be found here year round and the reason for this became clear shortly into our trip.
Sat inside the catamaran while being given the compulsory safety chat, we were told to watch the plasma screen showing our position in the bay, our speed and the depth. In the first 800m the depth had gone steadily from 20 to 100m, then suddenly as if it was broken it shot up and up and up until it hovered at around 1200m deep.
We'd just floated over the cliff edge of a very deep underwater canyon system called the Hikrangi Trench. It comes unusually close to shore at Kaikoura where its known as the Kaikoura canyon.
The sperm whales find their food in these deep trenches. They can dive to depths of a km for over an hour in pursuit of their prey, giant squids up to 12m long. These giant squid are amazing in that although seen washed up dead occassionaly, no ones ever seen or filmed one alive, they live so deep.
Most of the Kaikoura sperm whales are young males (14-25). The females, calves and older males (bulls) form breeding groups, spending most of their time in sub-tropical waters north of NZ, this is where mating and calving occur.
Despite little wind, there was a rolling swell, which madethings a little uncomfy for those prone to delivering an aqua pizza. This wasn't helped by having to sit inside every time we moved, which was often, then being herded outside again as soon as we stopped.
We were lucky enough to see 3 sperm whales during our trip. They are diffcult to spot, having dived for usually around 40 minutes to feed, they return to the surface to breathe and rest for about 15 minutes. So its not much of a window.
These magnificent creatures grow up to 20m long and weigh over 50 tons, but on the surface you only ever see a tenth of their size. As they dive, their body gently arches down followed briefly but spectularly by their 5m tail. Its the best photo opportunity of the day unless you're a gimp like me and forget the camera.
On our way back to shore we spent 15 minutes travelling amongst a pod of 20 dusky dolphins. They were black and white and really small, like really big tuna. Most of them ignored us but a few were darting under the boat and leaping right out of the water into the bow waves.
Kaikoura is also a salty twichers paradise, and today from the boat we saw once again, the king of seabirds, the Royal Albatross, as well as his cousin the Meandering Albatross, Australasian Gannets, Petrels, Shearwaters, Shags, Fulmars, Terns and Gulls.
The things we could have seen but didn't include Orcas, Occassionaly Blue Whales, Pilot Whales, bottlenose dolphins and Hectors dolphins (smallest rarest dolphin).
Luckily for me the visitors centre had a selection of photos of sperm whales and dusky dolphins and we didn't have to waste camera batteries deleting 99% of the ones I would have taken. Digital cameras are superb, we still meet the old SRL enthusiast who reckons its just not the same, and he's dead right. We're not big into photgraphy, but we work on the theory that if we take enough theres bound to be the odd good one. The digital allows us to take 150 and delete 145 no questions asked.
Thankfully I did remeber to take the camera later in the day when we walked round to the seal colony. The tide was right in and just as we arrived in the busy carpark, a large bull male made his way in from the sea, up the steps into the carpark and then jumped up onto the 3ft high perimeter wall. A crowd of tourist Mums, dads and children quickly gathered with lots of oohs and aahs and clicking cameras as he lay on his back, then stretched out and then began squirming around as if he was scratching his back. Only he wasn't, this was a 200kg male in the middle of the breeding season, he was out of luck out on the rocks so he thought he'd peddle his wares in the tourist carpark, and after a couple of minutes of peddling, his wares were there for all to see. He couldn't have looked more pleased with himself if he'd just caught a 5kg Barracuda. The crowd quickly dispersed as children asking awkward questions were ushered away.
Expenses: Accom 85 inet 11 fuel 42 book 9 pcard 2.50 whales 250
Friday Dec 24th - Day 241
Christmas Eve, but its not here. At home Christmas is big, something to look forward to in the middle of winter, a festival of over the top coloured lights, brightening up the dark days of December, presents under the tree, stuffed poultry in the overn, and all those things we only ever eat at Christmas, like mince pies, brussell sprouts, bread sauce and Christmas Pudding with brandy cream.
Here though its summer (apparently) its light at 5.30am and doesn't get dark until 9.30pm so noone bothers with lights and walking through the main street theres no outward indication that its Christmas.
At home on Christmas Eve the supermarket would be absolutely heaving. They're shut for a full 24 hours so its vital everyone gets a months supply of food and drink in. Here, the supermarket was very quiet, just the odd disgruntled shopper (Rene) in a fruitless search for a Terrys chocolate orange.
An earthquake measuring 8.1 (the largest in the world this year) struck off Invercargill today, no damage was caused.
A cloudy windy day matched our mood, until later in the day, Stan and Dearne knocked on the door spreading seasonal comfort and joy. Stan and Dearne own the unit we're in and we'd mentioned to Dearne in the morning how unChristmassy it felt becasue its summertime. They arrived carrying a small plastic tree with flashing lights and a present ot go under it. How kind is that? Touched we were, but I had to tie Rene up to stop her opening it.
With pillow cases placed carefully at the bottom of the bed, we nervously tried to get to sleep, we've been emailing Santa with our new address but we know how busy he is, and I haven't been good all of the year.
Expenses: Accom 85 lunch 8 groceries 86.80 inet 14.55
Saturday December 25th - Day 242
A very quiet day. The smell of burning woke us, late last night we'd sat our 12 pound turkey astride the turned up high, 2 ring portable hotplate. We were hoping for slow roast crispy skinned browness, but ended up with a big bird with a burnt bottom. Sp its prawns all round.
Alcohol numbed the pain of a Christmas Day, roast potatoe no show. Imagine, no ROAST POTATOES.
A change of accomodation took us to our room with the stunning view, but heavy cloud obscured the mountains all day.
Expenses: Accom 100
Day 243 - Sun Dec 26th
Rene woke me in the middle of the night to tell me she thought there'd been a slight earthquake, I told her not to be daft and we went back to sleep. Later in the day we heard there had indeed been small quakes in the region.
Another quiet but sunny and hot day of wlaking the coast, reading and enjoying the view.
Expenses: Acom 100 mobile 20 food 51.75 inet 5 laundry 8
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