Kaikoura

After the first week back at "school," Derek and I took a weekend trip to Kaikoura (about 2.5 hours north of Christchurch) to enjoy his last few days in New Zealand. Kaikoura is right on the coast and is named for its abundance of crayfish (the Maori name is Te Ahi-kai-koura-a-Tama-ki-te-rangi). The drive there on Friday was gorgeous - sunny and clear - but of course I managed to sleep for most of it, and it turned out that that would be the nicest weather we'd have all weekend. We arrived in Kaikoura around dinner and ate our fish & chips on the beach while enjoying the sunset seen above. We camped at a site that was about 20 minutes from the centre of Kaikoura, but since it was dark we had some extreme difficulty finding it. After about 45 minutes of extra driving we finally rolled into the site and set up our tent. 


On Saturday morning we explored a drizzly Kaikoura before heading out for a bit of surfing. I rented a board, but Derek had brought his from Canada. It was not my best surf, but considering the waves were fairly inconsistent and difficult to read I didn't sweat it too much. Derek had a bit more luck but it wasn't great for him either. After a few hours, we returned the board and drove back toward the campsite. On the way, we stopped to check out a fur seal population; there were easily a hundred seals hanging out on the shore just off of the highway. We did a quick walk along the Ohau Stream to a waterfall, and on the way ran into a couple of adorable seal pups. In the fall, all of the baby seals head up the stream to hang out with each other while their mummies ditch them to hunt in the sea. Pretty adorable!

My new best friends

On Sunday the weather was looking like it would potentially clear a bit, so we opted to do a hike as opposed to surfing again. We chose to hike 1600m Mt Fyffe, hoping for some beautiful views. It was gorgeous for about the first hour on the way up (and when I say up I mean UP - it was switchback central; there was not one flat section on the hike) but after that we were hiking in a cloud. When all you're doing is exhausting yourself by walking a constant upward path and getting no visual benefit, you'd think you'd stop ... but not Derek and I. Being stubborn, we wanted to hit the summit, so we continued on along our soggy trek until we made it. It was not worth it at all. 

Pretty view of Kaikoura on the early part of the hike

Getting a little cloudy ...

Still stubbornly heading up through the cloud

The descent made both of our heads spin and we were practically falling over one another by the time we reached the car 6 hours after we'd started the hike. We rewarded ourselves with dinner out at a delicious restaurant and a movie at the local theatre where they still use film reels and have an intermission during which you can buy more popcorn!


Monday morning, Derek surfed for a few hours while I played photographer. It was pretty gross when we first got to the coast but it managed to clear after a couple of hours. The surf was much better than it had been on Saturday, which made Derek a happy surfbum. After a couple of hours, we hopped in the car and drove back to Christchurch in time for my afternoon class.