Golden Bay-Kaikoura

From Golden Bay we headed to Nelson staying close by in Richmond for a couple of nights and then staying at the coast in Cable Bay. We checked out at lively Saturday morning market in Nelson, wandered around town, popped into the museum and I ended up buying some gorgeous NZ wool and a pair of size S wooden needles. At different times during the trip I have missed knitting and looked in the odd shop but this place had beautifully soft hand-spun and hand-dyed wool. So I thought I'd make up a pair of legwarmers. After all it's just making two small scarves and then sewing up the sides. After a few goes at judging the width I was off.

The campsite at Cable Bay was cute with only 20 sites and the day before had hosted a VW Camper convention, so lots of lovely vans were parked up along the road.We took it easy, walking along the bay and up to the look out. On the following day we decided to walk up to the top of the hill with views over to Golden Bay. The private land had cattle, sheep, cows and goats all grazing together and it was a particularly steep climb to the top. The views were lovely but it was knackering. When the sun came out we headed to the stony beach, thought about going for a swim but decided against it and stayed warm and dry.

We continued south into the district of Kaikoura, through dry looking hills with occasional green expanses of vineyards and stopped for a quick look at a cob house that was built in the 1820's. Once the road hit the coastline we kept our eyes peeled for seals and stopped to take a closer look at a colony. It was lovely to see them playing in groups, or in pairs having a bit of a wrestle or just getting comfy on some rocks. The majority were sleeping and they can sleep for 20 hours a day. Hmmmm.... As we got closer to Kaikoura (meaning' food-crayfish' in Maori) the small fish/seafood shops started popping up along the road. We just had to stop at a place called Nin's Bin to check out what they had to offer. They had freshly caught and cooked crayfish on the counter with the prices written on their shells. In restaurants you can pay 80-90 bucks for a whole one. As I was the only one going to eat it I went for a smallish one. 35 Bucks, all good. The lady then guillotined the bugger in half so I could eat it out of the shell. Job done. It was delicious. We headed through town to the larger seal colony at the peninsula which is part of a Marine reserve. The area is quite special and has great diversity of sea life. This is due to the deep sea canyon where warmer waters rise which are particularly nutrient rich.

Originally the town was big on whaling but that collapsed in the 1900's and now the money is in whale watching and swimming with dolphins. And of course in crayfish.

In the three days we were there we visited a large Irish country pub called Donegal House where we supped a Kilkenny, we went to a lavender farm run by a Dutch couple, we did a wine tour and tasting, we chilled out by the pool and worked on our tans and one evening booked the spa pool. The highlight though has to be swimming with dolphins. Despite getting up at 5.00 AM to be kitted out with wetsuits and all the guff we found ourselves watching the briefing video and wanting a second cup of tea. The video gave us pointers on how to entertain the doplhins(swim in circles,sing or make noises and for the more adventurous, diving) in order to attract them so they would check us out. After the video stating that the dolphins are not trained or enticed into the area and that our experience was as much to do with our own performance I didn't know what to expect and thought they might not get that close. We were soon on the boat with 11 other people and heading into South Bay in search of a group of dolphins. ThePacific Ocean was really calm and after 25 mins we jupmed in and began entertaining the dolphins. I was amazed by how interested theyw ere and how close they all came and darted around you and looked you in the eye as they passed. A couple of times I realised I was just holding my breath in amazement as they swam around me. All the swimmers try to stay together and periodically you'd look up to check you were still with the group and to check the position of the boat. The swimming in a circle and singing songs seemd to work a treat with'Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside' proving a bit of a hit. After quite a while we called back to the boat and headed out further where a larger group had been spotted. The swimming lasted about an hour or so and the crew told us it was a pod of 200-300 dolphins that we'd been interacting with. Aftrewards we dried off and tucked into hot chocolate and ginger nut cookies while taking pictures of the dolphins. We saw plenty of gulls and albatros and a huge school of fish. Then at around 8:30 we headed back to the harbour. On the way we stopped and saw a seal having his breakfast trying to tear it. The crew told us this was particularly unusual as seals are nocturnal feeders. Then 5 minutes later we saw another one! Then we saw a Mako shark which is quite rare. We got back and had a second breakfast feeling pretty tired once the adrenaline had gone. So we headed for Christchurch ready to sell our van...


Em xx