Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway

Two weekends ago I drug Marty along to a quick trip to Kaikoura, a coastal town a little over 1.5 hours south of Blenheim.  I've stopped here before on the way to Christchurch to say "hi" to the Ohau Point Seal Colony, but this weekend's adventure was tackling the 3 hour Peninsula Walkway.

Kaikoura is a coastal town, population around 2100.  The name means "meal (kai) of crayfish (koura)".   The marinelife is spectacular here, and tourists flock here to go swimming with dolphins and whalewatching.  Neither of those activities excite me, so it was the 3 hour walk instead.

We stayed overnight at the Pier Hotel, a cozy seaside pub and hotel that was built back in 1885! (pretty old for NZ standards)

We were the only ones staying there for the night (creepy and cool at the same time).  Here was our balcony, where we ate breakfast.

After breakfast we started our walk around the peninsula.

It wasn't long til we met some of Kaikoura's famous residents--- seals!!!

There were tons and tons of them!   This must've been a family.

 This one was napping.

This one looked a little groggy.  Maybe I woke it up from its nap.  :)

I was being silly and pretending to be a seal to see if they'd like it.

They didn't.

See this cute one hiding?  Adorable.

This one wasn't hiding at all--- he plopped himself right down on the walkway!

It was fun to get up and close with them.  But there were signs all over telling you not to get *too* close.   When they didn't like how close you were, they kind of barked/hissed at you.  Marty wanted me to keep getting a little closer to this one for a good photo.  I kept my distance.

But then I moved a step closer and the seal almost charged at me!  BEST ACTION PHOTO EVER! 

Funny now, but not funny at the time.

 The walkway passed along high ground at times with views of beautiful coast below.

We walked down to the end of this smaller peninsula...

And found another seal colony!

Seals weren't the only animals of the day.   Cows were spotted, too.

And a duck...

And many, many seagulls-  this one prettily perched with a fantastic background for photographing!

I also learned that Marty is quite the "pig whisperer".  He taught me how to call pigs-  simply say "Pigpigpigpigpigpigpigpig!" and they will come over to you.  :)

The pigs we came upon were called "Kunekune pigs", a small breed of domestic pig found here in New Zealand.   They have a dumpy build, are hairy, and have wattles hanging below their chin.   "Kunekune" means "fat and round" in Maori.   Did I mention they're ugly?

Truly faces only a mother can love! :)

Before ending the trip, Marty (the arborist) gave me a quick tree lesson--- this is a banana passionfruit tree.

Which had lovely ripe banana passionfruits on it--- a perfect snack for the end of our 3 hour hike!

Yum.

A great overnight trip to Kaikoura.   And lesson learned about getting too close to seals!

Til next time!



Caves and Coal in Westport

Last weekend I returned to the "Wild West Coast" for a weekend cave rafting adventure.  Just a few km's south of Westport, there's a town called Charleston.  There used to be a hotel there (It closed.)  There used to be a pub/restaurant there (Closed as well.)  But still in existence is the Norwest Adventures company, which I bought a 2-for-1 voucher to go caverafting!  My pal Marty was keen to join me, so off we went.

New Zealand has so many rivers and streams that they need to start getting creative with their naming.  I was psyched to see this one...

And of course Marty (short for Martin), of course loved this one!

Our cave rafting adventure departed from the teeny tiny town of Charleston.  They suited us up with wesuits, booties, gloves, helmets, the works!  (It *is* winter here, remember).  They then loaded us on a cute little train thing that choo-choo'ed us to the cave entrance.

They gave us inner tubes that we had to carry up 120-some steps to the top of the cave.   Here's a group photo, BEFORE the crazy steps.

The caves were spectacular! I couldn't believe how many networks there were--- we must've walked for over an hour, all inside the caves!  

The guide took photos of us with her handy-dandy waterproof camera.  Don't we look official here? ;)

At one point we were so deep in the cave we all turned off our headlamps and it was dark.  Like so dark you can't see your hand waving in front of your face.  So dark that there's NO light and it's impossible for your eyes to adjust!

After the caves by foot, it was time to explore caves by tube!   We all hopped in our tubes and linked up to navigate some skinny cave passages.  We turned our headlamps off again, and the glowworm display was spectacular.

20 minutes later, we made it to where the cave waters meet the Charleston River.   It had rained a bunch earlier that week, so there were mini rapids for us to enjoy.

 Whee!

After our cave rafting adventure, we decided to check out the Truman Track, a beach path along the West Coast with fantastic rock formations.

Saturday night was spent eating fish and chips at the local pub in Westport and watching the New Zealand All Blacks DESTROY South Africa.  (On a side note, the Rugby World Cup is just about a month away and guess who's got tickets to USA vs Ireleand?? Meeeee!)

Sunday we headed north of Westport to the historic town on a hill called Denniston.

Guess what they have there?

Yep, that's coal!

In the early 20th century Dennistown was a booming mine town with a population over 2000.  Now it's a ghost town, population now of less than 50.  But the Dept of Conservation is doing an amazing job at preserving the remains still there (the mines closed in the late 1960s). 

While the picture above may not look like much, it's actually the top of the Dennistown Incline. This was a track that linked the hilltop town (600 meters elevation) down to Conn's Creek, the railway terminus at the bottom of the incline.  The track fell 510 meters in 1.7 kilometers, so it was quite steep!!  This was how coal was brought down the hill.  There were actually two inclines on a pulley system--- the weight of a heavy coal wagon going down would pull an empty wagon back up the the top.  Over the incline's lifetime, it carried an estimated 12 MILLION tons of coal!

It's hard to see, but the track thru the trees in the valley is what remains of the Incline track below.  That's a long way down!!

Here are some old remains lying around in the town, from building foundations to spare wagon parts and such.

Hanging on tight to a coal wagon!   (Don't worry, it was locked in place)  :)

There was also an aerial tower still in place that they used to transport smaller buckets through town in the air.   Kind of reminds me of a skyride at an amusement park!

So as you can see, our weekend on the West Coast was both educational and fun.

Cheers from your favorite spelunking doctor!



Lyndsay comes to town!

Nope, I didn't spell that wrong.   My friend with the same-sounding-but-different-spelling name came over on the ferry from Wellington for a weekend visit!   We met for the first time almost a year ago in Martinborough while we were wine tasting, so since Blenheim is wine country as well, guess what we did?

Yep, a Marlborough wine tour!  We joined a van group that carted us around.  We requested more boutique wineries, which we found to have more of a personal touch.  Below is the barrel room at Fromm Winery...

Cloudy Bay Winery...

Lawson's Dry Hills Winery (our 6th and final stop) had some gifts to browse.  We were getting silly with these possum skins for sale.  I really almost bought one!!  What was I thinking?!

Lyndsay's from the big city of Wellington.  I tried my best to show her the Blenheim nightlife.  She couldn't get over the traffic in downtown Blenheim on a Saturday night...

We did find a bar that we managed to amuse its three other patrons with our karaoke skills.   An American and a South African accent in our singing surely pleased the local Kiwis!! :)

It was a great weekend that went by WAY too quickly.  Looking forward to the next Linz-squared get-together!

Picturesque Picton

There's a great town called Picton just a 25 minute drive from Blenheim.  I've mentioned it briefly before, but spent some time 3 weeks ago (eek I'm behind on blogging again!) exploring it a little closer.  

Saturday I took a walk on the Snout Track, a path from Picton out to Waikawa Bay.  Most of it is elevated and coastal.... for great views.   Here's a look back at the port of Picton.

 Some views of the Queen Charlotte Sounds from the Track..

 Absolutely gorgeous day!

 I spotted a ferry or two making their way to Picton, coming from Wellington.

This is the end of the track, Waikawa Bay.  Not a bad place for a break!

Looking down at the crystal blue water of the Bay. 

The next day my friend took me back to Picton for some more exploring.  We had lunch in a boat!  There is a docked schnooner in the Picton Harbour named Echo that has a complete cafe and restaurant inside in the bottom.  We were the only ones eating there.  How cool!

 We took a drive and a short walk to Karaka Point, the site of an old Maori pa (village).  There still exist pits of ground here which the Maori used to bury food in times of fighting and hiding.   The shore here was gorgeous as well.

I played around in the tide pools.  Water so clear!!

I spent a good 10-15 minutes just watching this starfish slowly move and curl around.

 Found a scallop, too!

All in all a great scenic weekend, so close to "home".

Cheers from Picturesque Picton!