Kaikoura -a whale of a time!

We made good time up the main highway towards Christchurch and our destination on the coast at Kaikoura. Another beautiful warm day, unlike the UK the NZ farmers are very worried about the lack of rain. We made a small diversion to Gore Bay, had a wander along the  deserted beach and inhaled the fresh sea air. We arrived in Kaikoura by mid afternoon, our accommodation overlooking the golf course and a short walk to the sea turned out to be the best - and everything to date has been excellent but this tops the lot! Just discovered how to insert pics from this tablet so you can see Maureen relaxing.

We celebrated our arrival with a nice bottle of NZ sparkling rose and a dip in the spa bath then off to explore the small seaside town of Kaikoura. We quickly found the location for our whale watch trip tomorrow at 7.15am and also booked a restaurant for dinner this evening.  All restaurants have those giant NZ green lipped mussels on the menu and this also a crayfish area - needless to say I had the mussels - yummy.

Sunday - it's our trip out early on the whale watch boat......the weather is on the change and ........will we see any whales? We arrived at the check in at 7am for the first boat of the day. After a briefing we were taken by coach to the small port and quickly boarded the specialist high speed catamaran, the company has 4 - must be popular.  Only a few miles offshore is the continental shelf making this only one of three places in the world where whales can be found close to land. Whale to starboard came the cry and everyone quickly left the comfort of the viewing cabin to man the outside rails and small open top deck. This massive humpback whale put on a great show, blowing water before slowly and majestically slipping below the water with a final flap of his massive tail. A few minutes later we saw another then dolphins, albatross and fur seals - a great final morning to what has been a simply unforgettable holiday in NZ.

On our return we discovered all other whale watch trips (they can have 16 a day!)  have been cancelled due to deteriorating weather - just as well we were on the early boat.

We are now packed and ready to leave tomorrow morning - look forward to a final dinner this evening.