Top of the South Island!

From Christchurch we headed up to Kaikoura on the East coast of the South island. I had been told by someone that this was the town rebuilt after a massive fire/earthquake in Art Deco. However, it turns out that town is actually Napier, in the North Island - near our following night stop.

Regardless, Kaikoura was an interesting town offering once again several extreme sport options - or a walk/hike around the waterfront coves where seals and bird colonies abound. After a leisurely rise and drive here, we took the afternoon to do the walk. Albatross also nest here, but unfortunately we did not see any of them - they were what I had hoped most for.

The limestone cliffs on the seaside are followed by rolling hills. The hills were actually fortified by the local Maori tribes, and if you look closely you can see the 'stepped' formations of the 'pa' (fort) on the hills remaining. Each step originally consisted of double rows of vertical spears to prevent the enemy tribes from ascending the hills.

So Kaikoura ended up an interesting stop en route to Picton for our ferry crossing the next day. The next day was wet and rainy for most of the day, and not very exciting. Which worked out not so bad as we were travelling by ferry to the North Island and then driving for many hours. But en route to the ferry we did pass another group (hmm, not sure of the proper term for that - Kyle thinks it may be a squadron :-) of seals.


Then no more photos till we reached the North Island en route to Havelock North where we are staying 2 nights at the Birds home. Warren and Debbie were in Canada several years ago on exchange and Michael taught with Warren. They are very kindly lending us their home while they are on vacation. We will hook up with them in a couple of days in Tauranga.