Kaikoura

Monday 16^th – Wednesday 18^th January2012

Bit of info….Kaikoura means to eat crayfish (kai – to eat, koura – crayfish) or the full name Tamatea-pokai-whenua which was a great traveller who stayed here and lit a fire to cook a meal of crayfish!!

We arrive in Kaikoura about 7pm after a 12 hour bus journey L I thought these were a thing of the past…..

On my way here I have to plan the rest of my route with Kiwi Experience and also book my Whale Watching trip for Tuesday – exciting!!

I only have 10 days left and I have a fair bit to fit in – so my route is as follows:

Kaikoura

Wellington (capital city) and birthday celebrations!

Taupo

Waitomo – Black Water Rafting and glowworm caving

Rotorua for a Marori experience

Then my last stop – Auckland

On the way to Kaikoura we stop off at Lake Tekapo – the picture below says it all, just beautiful J there had been snow during the night (yes it is supposed to be summer here!!) but this meant Mount Cook looked even more spectacular covered in snow!  Mount Cook is New Zealand’s highest peak and the Marori name for the mountain is ‘Aoraki’ meaning cloud piercer.

We also pass through Christchurch where you do have the option to stay, but they are still experiencing aftershocks on a daily basis and there is very little left of the town centre and due to the number of aftershocks they keep getting they predict it is going to take 25-30 years to re-build.  I chose not to stop here this time.

Tuesday morning the girls leave for Wellington and I have got the day in Kaikoura to do my Whale Watching trip.  I am booked on the 12:45pm boat but when I arrive at the Whale Station they announce that the trip has been cancelled due to heavy winds and the Whales are too far from shore.  I am pretty disappointed as I have been looking forward to this trip since I booked it L but after a chat with the staff I book myself to go swimming with Dolphins at 5:30am which I am sure will be equally (if not more) exciting!  

An early start to go swimming with the Dolphins, but it was absolutely worth it! We jump on a boat and sail out to find the dusky dolphins.  After just twenty minutes we find a large pod of dolphins and as soon as the boat stops we can get in the sea and start swimming with them.  Little scared as involves me in the sea again and a snorkel on….. There were about 500 dolphins and they literally come right up to your face, swim underneath and around you.  As they are wild we can’t touch them just have to swim amongst them.  It was such a fab experience J

The bus picked me up at 9am and we headed to Wellington where we are meeting up with everyone and time to celebrate my birthday J