The next day we were back to the early start routine. This time we were off to Kaikoura where we had an afternoon of sea kayaking planned. We arrived with just enough time to dump our stuff at the Dolphin Backpackers and do the all important claiming of beds thing before we headed to the kayaking office to get sorted. Since there were three of us big brother and his wife risked their marriage by sharing a kayak leaving me to share with a random Canadian (I think). It turned out he really knew his kayaking and after a a few quick instructions and demonstrations by out instructors we were out on the water and looking for seals. We soon learned that if we did as instructed and waited, nearby seals would come to us for a nosy. I made sure to keep my hands out of the water when they were close by after seeing the teeth on the first one we had a close encounter with. I’m sure they are not interested in humans as food but I didn’t want my fingers to be mistaken for fish! As well as paddling out in the sea we also kayaked close to their resting ground where I managed to get a photo of Zack on the kayak during one of our rests. I am sure my kayaking companion was most confused but it made my day.
That evening there was only one real choice of food for dinner and that was seafood. Kaikoura means “meal of crayfish” and is known for its seafood. It lived up to its expectations and it was nice to have a more relaxed not to mention cheaper meal for once. As well as trying the famous Kaikoura seafood we finally tried the equally famous L&P. We were very confused, it tastes like lemonade. I'm not sure what I was expecting but lemonade wasn't it. Still it was very nice lemonade.
As usual we opted for a fairly early night. We did stop for a few drinks n the way back to the hostel as well as enjoying one or two on our return but we had yet another early start the next day. We had a 6:45am slot booked for some whale watching. As always the early start was worth it. We were barely out of the bay when we saw our first whale. We were lucky enough to see two more though one of them disappeared back underwater before we could get close. Too soon it was time to head back to dry land but the trip wasn’t quite over. On the way back we had some dusky dolphins for company which was an exciting end to a successful whale watching tour.
Since we had had such an early start and it was my birthday I indulged in pancakes for breakfast (any excuse really) and we took our time enjoying our holiday that seemed to be going much too fast. Too soon we were back on the road heading to our final South Island stop. At least we knew there'd be some good wine at the end of our journey though as we were heading to Blenheim.
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