02-11-2008 From Picton to Kaikoura

Travel blog about our trip to New Zealand in October/November 2008
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Pieter
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02-11-2008 From Picton to Kaikoura

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2 November 2008 - Kaikoura, New-Zealand


It’s unbelievable, yesterday the rain came pouring down, but today the sun is back. The light here is incredibly bright, for the air is very clean over here. First things to do are stocking up our supplies and hopefully score a SD card or a small disk to store the photos, but alas, no such luck.
So we set underway to the south-east, Kaikoura is our next goal. They are famous for the local crayfish and I’m aiming to eat one of those delicious creatures in order diminish the population :lach2:
Along the way we spotted a cottage, restored and it contained old furniture. Really quaint, but lovely to see. It was quite poor here in 1859, it wasn’t only a residence, but also a little school. The teacher would have to get a bucket of water each morning, wood for the fireplace and sweep the chimney every now and then. Those were the days :lach2: :lach2: :lach2:, things are a lot easier today. One of the rules was that the children had to listen to the teacher and do as he told, maybe a rule to reinstate in our time?
The further south we got, the better the weather, although it is still a bit chilly, but out of the wind and in the sunshine we could sit outside in a t-shirt. We’re getting a tan without baking on a sunny beach in Spain or Turkey…
Our own engines needed fuel, so we made a stop in Seddon, where the steak pie and the toastie were very tasty. Also this place was for sale, so we took a closer look. We think it was worth a go, located in a prime spot with enough traffic on the road to Kaikoura. There is even a campsite in the village, all potential customers. It even has a cute name, “The Cosy Corner”, which is ever so true.
We are driving through the heart of the wine lands of the southern isle, beautiful young grapevines on the gentle slopes and even more are planted as we speak. The wines are very good over here, we’ve tasted the white and going to get us some red and rose wines this week.
After a while we took a stop near Kekerengu for a walk on the beach and on the way back we bumped into a beautiful restaurant/gallery. “The Store” is the name, situated in a magnificent spot. When the original blog was written they didn’t have a website, but now they do The Store
Up and away again, today we didn’t drive very far, so we reached Kaikoura at 13:00 hours. Here we went for a walk and looked in at the little shops. We also topped up our wardrobe with some warm clothing, we didn’t took much with us on the flight and we spotted a café for our diner tonight. We also found a computer store, but is was closed. Never mind, we’re planning on coming back tomorrow for some more shopping, maybe it is open then.
The campsite for today is at the beach and in this case, a black beach. Because of the nearby river, the beach is scattered with the remnants of dead trees, all washed down by the floods in the river. It looks like mighty torrents when you take a look at the boulders scattered in the river bed. Walking on the beach we thought to see some driftwood, but it soon became clear we were watching dolphins. They were swimming close to the beach and breached the surface regularly. Our guess was that they were the Hector dolphins, a smaller species with dark fins and a pale brown colour. Hopefully we can see them better on the photos, but when I got the camera out they were a bit further away.
Almost forgot to tell, before we reached Kaikoura we saw a colony of seals, basking in the sun on the rocks. The reason for the stop was I spotted the rocks, all smoothed by the ocean and I wanted to take some photos of it. To our surprise we then spotted the seals and the longer we looked, the more we saw! Lazy bums.
As said, there was a crayfish waiting for me, so back to Kaikoura, which means where man eats red lobster in Maori language. Not only the crayfish was very tasty, also the ribeye steak was very good and if given a chance I’ll be eating another one. (P)

Pieter heads for the beach with the film camera, so it’s my time to share some impressions. What to say, it really is amazing here, after each bend in the road a new and amazing world appears. The spot we’re at now is to die for, situated a little south from Kaikoura, just a 3 star campsite, but what a beautiful spot. ( www.kaikourapeketabeach.co.nz . the rear of the campervan faces the Pacific and the sun is warming it all. No clouds in the sky, so we expect a cold night. The food at the café was also out of this world www.craypot.co.nz I had the ribeye steak, delicious!! Even the lettuce and other greens are way more tastier here. A cucumber with a crunch beats a watery greenhouse cucumber any day! All in all it’s al to much to mention, everything seems more tasty, more beautiful and better. The local people are friendly, but not the most beautiful of species, not to mention the overweight. This is where all the fast food comes in, the Mac, Subway, KFC and Burger King are everywhere to be found.
The packaging of these fast food chains are to be found on the verges alongside the roads. A really good minister of environment is called for. It’s a shame to see all the garbage messing up the beautiful nature here. We both smoke, but no bud from us ever hits the ground. We put them in the bins provided, or take them with us to dispose of them later. That’s the way it should be, don’t leave your litter on the streets.
Oke, thats it for me, the wireless internet connection is down again, so we’re going to try and upload our story via a USB stick in the kiosk on site. Pedro is going to work on the photos and the we wait and see what happens. By the way, posts might become somewhat scarcer in the upcoming weeks, we’re leaving for the lesser populated areas and a internet connection isn’t always available. Keep checking, no news is good news 😊 . (M)

Ow dear, we uploaded al this via the kiosk PC, fingers crossed!!!
Don't put your mouth into motion, before your brain is in gear.
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