|
|
||||
|
|
|
||||
With our alarms set for 6:30am and an intended departure time of 7:30am (we had to be at the ferry terminal for 8am), it was no surprise when we woke up at 6am. After a shower we decided we had time for a quick breakfast, which we did, but filling the camper with water took a while longer and it was 7:35am by the time we left the campsite - and then joined the queue of traffic waiting to join the main road into Wellington - so much for timing the journey the day before!
There was no need for panic, though, as we still arrived at the ferry terminal at 8:15am and joined the queue at check-in. After a short wait we drove onto the ferry and parked up before making our way upstairs and finding some seats in the lounge. Once we'd set sail we grabbed a bite to eat from the onboard café and I settled down to read my book, hoping to finish it quickly so I could enjoy the entrance to Picton. I did briefly head up onto the observation deck, but as the bow section was closed off there wasn't much more to see from the deck than from the lounge. No sooner had I got truly engrossed in my book did I discover we'd already arrived in port and it was time to return to the camper. So much for enjoying the spectacular scenery on the approach to Picton!
After disembarking, we joined a steady stream of traffic heading south and after a short stop to discuss plans
for the day, turned off the main road and into WINE COUNTRY! Tracy had been doing some research on the area's
(Marlborough) wineries (they don't have vineyards
here!) and had selected one - Hunters - for us to
visit. This winery was established in 1979 by an Irishman, Ernie Hunter, who was instrumental in getting
Marlborough wines, and in particular, the Sauvignon Blanc, onto the International stage. He was killed in
a car crash only a few years later and his wife, Jane Hunter CNZM OBE, took over. She has been awarded the
letters after her name - CNZM or Companion to New Zealand Order of Merit and OBE (Order of the British Empire) for
her services to New Zealand wine. So we had to do a little tasting, obviously! First up was a Miru-Miru, a
Champagne-style sparkling white wine - Miru-Miru meaning bubbles
in Maori - and it was delicious. Then on
to the Sauvignon Blanc (not as fruity as many I've tried), Chardonnay (very nice!), Reisling (bit bland),
Pinot Gris (surprisingly excellent), Gewurtztramminer and finally the Pinot Noir (the only red wine they
produce). Needless to say with me driving the tasting glass sizes were very small! Having tasted such excellent
wines it would have been rude not to buy some, so we came away with 6 bottles - 1 Miru-Miru, 2 Pinot Gris, 1
Chardonnay, 1 Gewurtztramminer and 1 Pinot Noir. That should keep us busy for a while!
After leaving the winery and driving round the area looking at the massive flat fields of vines, we headed over to the coast to a freedom campsite Tracy had found. Called Rarangi, it's just north of Blenheim and the site is managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) who charge a measly NZ$8 per person to stay here. The site is lovely, with a short walk to the ocean front and Monkey Bay, with a view back to North Island on the horizon, and a nearby cave which we are promised is home to glowworms - it we can stay awake until after dark we may even go and investigate!
With so much wine in the camper it may come as a surprise to hear tonight we've not opened a bottle, we just enjoyed the lovely Moroccan Lamb dish for dinner. I'm sure we'll open a bottle tomorrow, though!
At dusk we took the short walk to Monkey Bay to look in the cave in the hope of seeing glowworms, but it was still too light. After sitting watching the ocean for half an hour, we tried again and caught a glimpse of a small clutch of glowworms in a dark crack in the cave roof, before calling it a night and returning to the camper.
After a peaceful night's sleep we woke to grey skies and the odd spit of rain before another leisurely breakfast
(amazing how many of our breakfasts are leisurely!), we packed up and drove the short distance down the coast
to Blenheim where we visited the Omaka Aviation Museum. This had two main exhibitions - one WW1 and one WW2 - so
we started with the WW1 exhibition which included a lot of obscure WW1 aircraft in displays with mannequins used
to help illustrate how they were used. A lot of this collection belongs to Sir Peter Jackson, the Kiwi film director,
and he's used his contacts to help put on a spectacular show. The star of the WW1 exhibition was undoubtedly the
recreation of Baron von Richtofen's Red Barron
last flight, which depicted the scene of his crash-landed
tri-plane after it was found by an Australian gun crew. They looted his fur-lined boots (which were later donated
to the museum and on display in a nearby cabinet) and they also cut the black crosses from the canvas fuselage - the
act being depicted in the scene before us. The actual piece of canvas cut from the plane was also on display in
a frame in the museum. After wandering round taking lots of photos, we headed
for the WW2 exhibition, entitled Dangerous Skies
. Again, with full-size aircraft displayed in various
dioramas, this was very good. They had a full-size Stuka dive-bomber hanging from the ceiling and even one
simulating a plane crashed into a tree! The WW2 exhibition also included a very lifelike model of a female
Russian fighter pilot, the first female pilot to be credited with a kill. There was also a short film explaining
the staggering numbers behind the Battle for Stalingrad, in which as many German soldiers were killed as were
killed in the whole of the rest of the war. But those numbers paled against the 8 million Russians (nearly 4 times
the number of Germans) who were killed during the battle. The exhibition concluded with the obvious star airplane
of the war, a Spitfire, this time a Mark XIV, owned and flown until recently by one of a group of local pilots
who put on a show around the country.
After a brew and the inevitable slice of cake in the onsite café, Tracy returned to the camper whilst I went to visit the Omaka Classic Car Museum that was next door. Here they had a large collection of cars from the 60's, 70's and 80's, all in very good condition. They were mostly Jags, Fords and a few Australian Holdens. For me there were a few stand-out exhibits, including a very rare Lotus Ford Escort. The star of the show, for me at least, though wasn't a car but a motorcycle - a replica Vincent Black Shadow, built almost entirely by hand (except for the front forks), this was a work of art and totally indistinguishable from the real thing. Very impressive!
By the time I'd finished looking around, conscious that Tracy was waiting for me, it was early afternoon, so we decided to head down the coast towards Kaikoura to find a campsite and be closer to where we needed to be the following day. The road down the coast, SH1, had only reopened in December following the earthquake that hit the area in November 2016, which had closed the road for a full year. Apart from a few sections where the road had clearly collapsed and been rebuilt, there was little sign of the devastation that had hit here. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake caused extensive shifting of the land and killed 2 people, and was followed by a tsunami that peaked at 7m high.
We decided to stop at another DOC campsite, Puhi Puhi, which was 6Km down a gravel road away from the coast and by a river. When we arrived the site was quiet with just one other vehicle. With no water on site and just a smelly drop-toilet, it was fine for us in our self-contained camper, but perhaps not ideal for tents! Whilst we enjoyed our bottle of Miru-Miru and some olives before tucking in to Lemon-Chicken-Oregano and salad washed down by a bottle of Reisling, the campsite filled up. Supposedly only suitable for 6 pitches, we counted over a dozen before we closed the curtains and turned in for the night.
Waking to the sound of rain, we discovered a few more people had turned up during the night and every available bit of land was now occupied - including a tent pitched right outside the door next to our van! It seems the warden doesn't come to inspect this site - and having paid NZ$16 to camp here we were a little disappointed it was so over crowded.
But it didn't dampen our moods - neither did the rain - as we drove into Kaikoura to check out the campsite and suss out where we need to go for this afternoon's Whale Watching trip and tomorrow's kayaking experience. Having done that and with time to kill, we went to the supermarket to stock up and take advantage of their free wifi before heading down to the coast road and a public dump site to empty the loo and waste water.
Chores done we parked up on the ocean front and had a brew (tea tastes very good here!) and a buttyfor lunch. With a bit of time still to spare, I caught up with my journal, whilst Tracy read her book. With less than an hour to go until our whale-watching trip we were very excited despite the low cloud and forecast of heavy rain!
But. We drove to the HQ of Whale Watch Kaikoura and checked in or our boat which was due to depart at 1:45pm, only to be informed that there'd been a delay due to the conditions and the briefing had been put back to 2:35pm. Only at that time we were told the trip had been cancelled. I quickly shot up from our cinema seats and ran to the customer service counter to get there ahead of the hordes of Japanese tourists who had also checked in on our ill-fated boat, hoping to move our booking to the following day instead of having it cancelled altogether. Fortunately, there were a few spaces remaining on the final trip tomorrow at 4pm, so we now had a spare afternoon with nothing planned. We opted to head to the campsite, the Apline-Pacific Holiday Park, and check-in early, opting for an extra night to allow for the delayed whale-watching trip. I then cooked us a Lamb Jalfrezi using a pouch of Patak's luxury curry sauce whilst we sampled various bottles of MOA Brewery beer we'd bought a few days before. The campsite is well-equipped and we'd paid for unlimited wifi, so we had time to try and sort through our photos and upload a few to Facebook before turning in for the night. With the weather forecast for the following day looking good, and both kayaking and whale-watching on the agenda, we were both rather excited!
After a truly dreadful night's sleep, where I woke and had to get up at least 4 times during the night, I was finally dragged from a deep dream by my alarm clock at 6:50am. Time to get ready for the day, and what a day it turned out to be!
Clear blue skies revealed distant mountains that yesterday were hidden behind the low cloud. A wonderfully
refreshing shower and a good breakfast of cereal and tea set me up nicely. With the electric cable put away, and the
gas bottle turned off, we left the campsite and headed towards town and on to Kaikoura Kayaks, only to arrive half an
hour too soon, so we stopped at a water front car park to admire the view for a while. At this point the water looked
a little choppy, with breakers crashing over the rocks and I could tell that Tracy was getting a little
apprehensive. Fortunately before too long it was 8:20 and time for us to go to our meeting point, where we met
Connor, our guide, resplendent with a deep tan, dreadlocks and tattoos. Awesome!
We checked in (using an
app on their iPad, all very modern!), slapped loads of factor 50 suncream on - I bought Tracy a cap too, but for
NZ$25 decided I'd skip it - and then we drove in convoy over the hill to South Bay. Here we were dressed in
spray-deck skirts and lifevests, with neoprene booties for Tracy (my Teva sandals deemed sufficient) and then
introduced to our kayaks. Following a short safety briefing that covered 3 possible issues - an Earthquake, the
guide being knocked unconscious or us capsizing (interesting risk assessment!) we pushed the kayaks into the
water and with Tracy secured in front I took up my position in the rear. And off we went, out into the small
lagoon created by a rocky outlet, where we practiced paddling forwards and backwards whilst the other crews
took to the water. Within no time at all we were paddling out into the bay proper, onto a beautiful blue sea, with
hardly any waves, under a bright blue sky. Just great! We paddled across the bay to its North shore and were soon
amongst the seals (fur seals) milling about in the water as they waterproofed their fur. Apparently they have
oil-producing glands in their rears, so they bring these out of the water, release some oil, then roll about
to coat their fur in it. They didn't seem phased by us one bit, and we were able to get up close to watch them.
After spending a good deal of time with the swimming seals, we headed out to where the swell was greater. Here we
bobbed about, admiring the coastline whilst gently being raised and lowered several metres on the waves. Soon one
of our party was feeling queasy, so we paddled back into the bay, heading for another encounter with the seals.
Then Connor got a message over the radio from a lone kayaker in the middle of the bay to say there was a seal
enjoying a meal of octopus. So we quickly paddled over and this was a truly amazing sight as the seal had a large
squid in his mouth and was thrashing it about to break it up into pieces he could eat. Whilst the seals have teeth,
they can't chew, so bite into their food then thrash it until it's small enough to swallow. Fascinated and no
more than a few metres away, we could watch this process played out just in front of us. Awesome!
All too soon it was time to return to the shore, where we climbed out of the kayaks having not capsized (much to Tracy's relief). What a great way to start the day!
After returning all the loaned gear we drove back to the campsite - stopping at the bakery to get some bread for sandwiches (and, as they had fresh hot pies, a pie for me!). After lunch I did the laundry and then we caught up with re-planning the next few days as we hadn't intended on staying 2 nights (we did originally, then changed plans and now we're changing it back!).
At 3:30pm we left camp for our second trip onto the water, driving back to Whale Watch Kaikoura (incidentally, this is pronounced Kai-Koda as Kai means eat and Koda is crayfish). This time it was all go, albeit with a half-hour delay, so after a short briefing at 4:30 we boarded a bus along with 48 other people to drive to the boat - back via South Bay not far from where we'd been kayaking earlier. The boat is actually a catermaran, powered by 2 x 2500HP jet-boat engines (no propellers) and is very fast. Before boarding we were told people with mobility issues should sit inside at the rear (everyone had to be seated whilst in transit at speed), but the rush and push of people getting onboard meant Tracy and I couldn't get a seat together. Not that that proved to be an issue. Once underway and travelling at speed our guide, Bonnie, took us through what to expect. Off the coast lies a deep-sea trench formed by the collision between tectonic plates, which at around 1,600m deep draws nutrient rich water up from the Altantic. This provides a big feeding ground for lots of ocean life, including male sperm whales, who live here most of the year. The females don't like the colder water (sound familiar?) so they stay north in the tropics, but outside mating season the males are forced out and head here to feed. After a short high-speed dash across the bay we got word there was a sperm whale on the surface. The whales dive for 40-60 minutes at a time, surfacing to take in air (they are air-breathers, not fish) and so we had only a short time (about 10 minutes) to see him. As we arrived, we were told to leave our seats and head to the right side of the boat in order to see the whale. Tracy was bumped about in the ensuing rush, being knocked back into her seat and as we'd been separated when we boarded I wasn't close enough to prevent it. Some people have no manners! It didn't bother Tracy too much and as soon as we got on deck the captain manouevred the boat alongside the giant. He was basking on the surface, only a small part of his body visible, releasing the occasional plume of spray from his blowhole as he re-oxigenated his blood. Cameras clicking away, we watched for a while before he arched his enormous back, raised his tale and dived back to the depths for another feast. As we were alongside, we didn't get the classic view of his fluke as he dived, but the encounter was very special nonetheless.
With him lost to the depths for at least 40 minutes, we set off again, this time with us up on deck, racing across the ocean to where another whale had been sighted diving some time ago. Arriving in the area there was no sign of anything, but knowing a whale had dived here 45 minutes ago, we knew it was a waiting game. All eyes scanned the ocean, knowing the first sign of a sperm whale surfacing would be a plume of water spray rising from the surface at a 45°ree angle - unlike most other whales, sperm whales only have one blow hole hence the angle. It was soon spotted, a short distance away and we were off again, the chase was on! We arrived just in time to catch a glimpse of another huge sperm whale on the surface - looking like a giant log - before he too arched his back, raised his tail and was gone...
With no other sightings close by, we headed across the bay in search of other marine life. And soon we had the
best treat, a pod of dolphins - both dusky dolphins and common dolphins. We watched in rapt amazement as these
beautiful creatures put on a display for us - swimming under the hulls of the catermaran then leaping out of the
water, swimming on their backs and racing the boat. We also had the rare pleasure of seeing a couple of dolphins
swimming belly-to-belly - mating! Totally Awesome!
Leaving the dolphins to continue playing, we headed back towards the shore for our final treat - a feasting hump-backed whale! He took some chasing but we caught several glimpses of him as he passed by the boat, or took a dive down to start another feeding run. Unlike the sperm whale, he preferred to dive for a short period, travelling at a shallow depth whilst scooping food into his mouth. The only issue was when he caught me by surprise and in my eagerness to get a picture I knocked my lens shroud off on the handrail and sent it hurtling overboard. A small price to pay for such an experience!
Finally it was time to return to dock and the conclusion was the trip had been Totally Awesome!
Before returning to camp we went to the gift shop (which was closed) and then drove into town to get some
Fish and Chips for tea. Perhaps we should have had crayfish, but the fish and chips looked great and neither of
us fancied the crayfish. Back at camp we devoured our meal, and a bottle of delicious Hawke's Bay Chardonnay,
before collapsing into bed, exhausted. The end of a Totally Awesome
day.
Aside: I should probably explain the sudden and regular appearance of the word Awesome
in this day's blog.
It features courtesy of our first guide, Connor from Kaikoura Kayaks, who used the word constantly. And because,
on this particular occasion, it's total justified!
