Kaikoura - Christchurch 29th November. 2020

We left Kaikoura at 9.00am arriving in Christchurch just after mid-day. Didn’t go into the city this time just found a camp about five kilometres away from the airport so we will just spend  the afternoon packing up and sorting the van out ready for returning it in the morning. Our flight  leaves at 11.30pm flight NZ540 arriving in Auckland at 12.55pm  at this stage. It looks like a big rain storm is hitting Christchurch sometime late morning so hope we are in the air by then..

Today’s trip from Kaikoura to Christchurch.

I realised that I hadn’t sent pictures of the damage from the Kaikoura Earthquake along the east coast highway.

We had quite a few stop starts for single lanes. You just have to imagine how bad it all was at the time as they are still working on it.

This side of the cliff has been cemented.

All self explanatory 

The three tunnels, the third one for the trains

The coast line is very rocky.

We have now come inland to climb over a mountain range. For a long way we were just driving over very dry barron hilly countryside so wasn’t worth any pictures. But above as we started to get to the Christchurch end of our journey today, the country greened up and was suddenly  much more interesting.

I found another beauty.

Getting nearer to Christchurch.

Now arrived at North South Holiday Park. Not far from the airport. We have just finished sorting the van out and packing up. Now time to relax a bit.

This is the end of our two week holiday. All sorted to return home tomorrow. We traveled about 1700kms and weather was mainly kind to us but had about four full wet days all up around the sounds areas. It varied from really hot to chilly winds. So we had a lot of variety. Starting with the train trip and now ending up back at Christchurch. We really enjoyed the experience and now can’t wait for the next adventure on the road. Whether it will be in Australia or another NZ trip it will be great.  That’s it until next time. 👋

Our last BBQ

Kaikoura 28th November, 2020

Two nights here and the third tonight. Really nice having the three nights it has given us a good break especially PT from the driving except around Kaikoura. Today we got up at a slow pace and about 9.00am walked about a kilometre down the road to the New World  and back to camp for a coffee. We then drove over to the south of the peninsular where the Whale Watching boats leave from at Gooch Bay. Then over to the North Side of the Peninsular for lunch. Then back to camp to relax for the rest of the afternoon. Off to Christchurch tomorrow for our last night. We are just going straight to a camp near the airport to tidy up and return the van Monday morning before we catch our morning flight home. We are not going into Christchurch this trip. Maybe next time..

Woke up this morning to this fresh dump of snow, what a sight. Another beautiful clear morning but very cool wind coming up from the south hence the fresh snow.

A closer look.

Compare this photo taken yesterday. Quite a difference.

This morning we walked a kilometre along the road to New World. We walked down an access track to the beach.  Looking south back a kilometre from our camp..  the  pebbles are a lot smaller along here than behind the town where they are larger.

After shopping walked  back to camp for a coffee then drove over to Gooch Bay on the south side of the peninsular. The eastern end of the bay is very rocky. To launch your boat here you would have to know the channel is out between all the rocks.

Above and below. All around this end of the bay

Around further we are at the commercial harbour end where the Whale Watching boats are moored and leave from.

PT chatting to a very amateur fisherman. This Asian had no idea. Instead of winding the fish up he threw the rod and line back into the air and sent the fish flying through the air behind him.😂  Some of the Whale Watching boats behind. There at five of them in their fleet. Very sad to see them just sitting there as they are not getting the customers due to COVID. They are lucky to get one boat out a day. Don’t think that they are going today  due to the high winds.  

This shows the entrance out of their little harbour.

Boats sitting idle. 😢

One would have to know these waters navigating out of this harbour. Rocks everywhere. They go out just to the left.

Just to the right are the navigating markers.

Looking back over the harbour to the Whale Whatching boats. One of their crewmen told us that all their boats have jet units to minimise any damage to the whales and also due to the entrance to their docks which  is quite shallow after the earthquake damage. 

Leaving the harbour area continuing around Gooch Bay. Now getting away from the rocky area.

Now to beach part of the Gooch bay.

Cute..

Now time for our big outing out to lunch.  We checked this pub out  yesterday towards the end of the peninsular.

When we came back today all these bikies were just arriving. Oldies biking club so was fine. See our van lined up with them all. If you can’t beat them join them as they say.

Time for a seafood chowder. This is what you do in Kaikoura... all the bikies were outside eating.

Look at the size of this bowl. We didn’t get through it all. But it was delicious full of whole muscles.

This is the inside of the old pub really well maintained. We sat in the table to the right by the window. Very pleasant.

When we got back to lunch took the mountains again and the change from earlier this morning. Mountains are always interesting to watch as they always change. 

We have had a good three night break in Kaikoura after our two week fast moving trip. Last night in Christchurch tomorrow. Home Monday afternoon.

Tonight is rugby night First Auckland’s final and then later the All Blacks 🤞busy night and we are lucky that this camp has Sky TV  in a big lounge. Sure hope everyone is in favour of watching the rugby. We haven’t seen any TV all trip and haven’t missed it at all as I always have my blog to write to keep myself busy.  The wind is blowing hard now , later afternoon and it is a very cool southerly but lucky the sun has been out all day. And still plenty of snow on the mountains. Will be wearing our trackies along to watch the rugby tonight. ❄️ ⛄️ 

Kaikoura - 27th November, 2020

2nd day at Kaikoura and as we have an extra night to fit in we have decided to have three nights here at Kaikoura. Just to rest and slow down then down to Christchurch on Sunday for a night to tidy up and get the van ready to return on Monday, then our return flight to Auckland. Today started off brilliant but they said it would change  later today with rain tonight. You will see by today’s photos how it went. We didn’t rush out exploring, we had our morning coffee then went for a walk through the town talking to a couple of locals re the earthquake. Their stories were very interesting. Came back to camp for lunch, then off again taking the van to explore a little further afield. Then without any warning at all the clouds came down around the mountains sea fog came in then it got quite dark but no rain yet. We were lucky we saw everything we wanted too before the winds got up as well. Now snug in the van doing my blog. Our German boy left at 6.30am this morning to climb a track up the hills behind us. He said that he wouldn’t be back until around 5.30pm.  A long high hike up 1604m.  We have heard from him a couple of times to say he is OK that it had started to rain and very windy. He was sheltering in a hut. Don’t think that will help as the rain will difinately come. We can’t even see the hills from camp and it is turning colder after a beautiful hot sunny day. We were expecting this so all good. It’s meant to be another sunny day tomorrow. It is now 3.00pm and the rain has come and it’s very gusty. The poor boy still has at least two hours to get down off the mountain. I might start worrying now as it will be very cold up there. And I’m not sure if he would have met anyone for company.. 🤭😧🤞

We went for a walk through the town this morning and this is a peep round the back of the shops. Note the snow on the mountains tops. At this stage I hadn’t found the walkway to the beach. There is a high bank between the beach and shops

Same shot zoomed in

Now found my way onto the beach looking along to the mountains. As you can see lots of pebbles. 

Same shot zoomed in.

Got back to camp for lunch. Looking up from the campsite.

After lunch we went for a drive out to the peninsular and  the Kaikoura lookout.  The above photo is taken from the lookout. What a magic viewing area on a clear day. This is looking over the back of the peninsula to Gooch Bay. You can follow our drive on the above map.

Now looking Kaikoura side ove the residential area and town.

Zoomed in the above.

Looking down more into town

We have now gone down the hill and driven further out to the end of the peninsula to see the seals. On the map above out to the white area at the end of the road.

I could get really close to this one so I took five photos as he or she was rolling over backwards and forwards right in front of me. I would call it showing off. Starting from one side.

Just about on its back

Right on its back having a little rest.

Now rolling back again

Finally that  was it, exhausted and now time for a sleep. Can’t believe how close I could get to this performing seal. He did these movements continuously.

We walk out over these rocks, boulders to get to the seals. PT in the distance. 

We could  now start feeling the massive quick change of weather coming in.  Wind getting very strong. Quite eerie. 

The next photos show how quick the weather changed this afternoon. This is when we arrived at the seals area. 

Now the windy clouds are coming in fast.

Only turned my back for a couple of minutes and this

Back at camp at 3.00pm. The mountains are behind the clouds right down to the deck now. The change of weather all happened within 20 to 30 minutes. 

Just had a text from the boy he is safely back in camp and it is bucketing down. Mother duck can now relax.