February 21st-23rd: Christchurch
We decided to skip a section of the TA because it went through a very dangerous river section (the Rakia river) and the logistics to get around it were a pain. Whale watching in Kaikoura was much more tempting, and since we're were only going to be in New Zealand just this one time we decided to seize the opportunity to head east. It is an easy bus ride from Arthurs Pass to Christchurch. Then we'd go from Christchurch to Kaikoura, which is regarded as the best place in New Zealand to view whales.
While in Christchurch we stayed at the YMCA, which happened to have a street art gallery going on inside of it.
I'm not a big fan of street art, as you might be able to tell by the puzzled look on my face.
But I've grown fond of some artists, like Banksy.
This was my favorite painting.
This room was very interesting.
Here is Cody's favorite painting.
And the grand finale
We also went to the Willowbank Wildlife reserve to get a closer look at a kiwi. We'd been hearing them in the forests where we camped, but hadn't been able to see one in the wild.
The reserve was a really neat experience, we had a very cool encounter with Kiwis in their dark room.
And fed eels frozen chicken. We have seen these eels in the rivers all along the North island.
I made a friend.
And Cody made a friend.
Both of us concluded that we really liked Christchurch. After the earthquake many people left the city for either Wellington or Auckland. It seems like there is a very special community that stayed behind to help Christchurch rebuild itself.
February 23rd to 25th: Kaikoura
We had a 6:45 am bus ride to Kaikoura which meant we were at the bus stop at 6:15. Then we waited....and waited...
Another bus pulled up as we waited for ours to arrive. We watched with sleepy eyes as people began to board the one that just arrived. I checked my watch, 6:45....He should have been here. Worried we asked the bus driver available if he knew anything about our bus. Which he told us that ours hadn't arrived yet. It was pushing 7 so I called the bus line who informed us that we had missed our bus! This had to be a nightmare, it was the very last bus out of christchurch that we had booked and we missed it. I was convinced that the bus never showed. And thankfully so was the driver of the naked bus. But intercity bus line didn't want to hear it and refused to give us a refund. We were stranded! The bus driver was appalled by our treatment and offered us two free seats on his bus. This went from being our worst bus experience to the very best. We were incredibly lucky!
Milton (our hero) had only 2 seats left so we scrambled in and set in for the 3 hour ride.
Kaikoura is a very beautiful place. The small town is surrounded by high mountains that are covered in snow during the winter. This ex whaling community made big profits from whale watching tours and animal encounters. We both had reservations for a whale tour and I made a last minute booking for a seal encounter.
Real fruit ice cream, if you see it you gotta try it.
I'm usually prone to motion sickness in the car, and this was going to be my first experience on an extended boat trip. I had no idea what I had signed up for.
We booked the first tour and set out early in choppy seas. Conditions were rougher than normal and I tested out the vomit bag instantly- it worked!
I wasn't the only one vomiting it seemed like half the boat had used their vomit bags. Apparently I won the contest though for sea sickness. Cody didn't puke but he did feel a little queasy.
We didn't see a whale and had to reschedule for the next day.
Still nauseas from the boat I had to rush to catch my seal encounter.
Hopefully this would be a better experience with the ocean.
After checking in I was fitted with a wet suit, snorkel, and flippers. I had on a 7mm thick suit which meant putting my arms down at my sides became quite a chore. But on the plus side I'd float!
The boat ride to the seals was short, and once in the water we paddled out to the seals. They had placed us near a baby seal nursery and we were instructed to wait until the seals came to us.
The motion of the waves was really starting to get to me. As I bobbed up and down I had to take off my snorkel mask in case I had an emergency.
The seals wern't very active, about two swam in my general direction but sadly the seal swim was going to be a bust. After 3 hours of trying, we finally boarded back on the boat and headed home. Right before shore I had another bout of sea sickness and threw up off the side of the boat.
Once back on land all was well. I learned I was not meant for a life at sea.
The next day we were going out whale watching again in hopes of seeing at least one before leaving New Zealand. This time I was armed with Sea Legs and it was working quite well for me. Instead of being horribly sea sick I was very drowsy; for me that's a huge plus!
We tracked a male sperm whale for quite some time until he finally decided to resurface. The waters of NZ are too cold for the females so kaikoura bay is home to a large group of males all year round. The males can be as large as 20 meters. The specimen we saw was just a little smaller than the boat. He had been diving in the offshore canyons for 55 minutes and had finally surfaced to re oxygenate. Sperm whales have the largest noses and use them to cool/warm the oil in their heads to act as ballast. They are also incredibly aggressive and are known to attack other whales, and even humans that are trying to attack them.
It was an experience of a life time to see one if these guys just hanging out on the surface.
After stopping off by the fur seals we headed back to the shore.
We boarded a bus back to Christchurch which was the halfway point to get back on the TA trail.
February 25th to 27th: Christchurch
Once back in Christchurch we ran into 3 TA hikers. Andrew (Canada) Cracker jack (Germany) and Owl (Germany)
We had dinner with the two Germans, who we hadn't seen since Christmas.
Funny coincidence but Cracker Jack and my Mom have the same shirt.
After saying goodbye we boarded a bus that would take us back on the trail to Lake Tekapo.
Before leaving Cody had to leave his mark on the artists wall in the YMCA.
We will be riding in style coming back to the trail, Cody scored us two bikes for a 70 kilometer section. Something both of us are really looking forward to.
Saying goodbye to the beautiful part and Gardens next to our Hostel in Christchurch
We decided to skip a section of the TA because it went through a very dangerous river section (the Rakia river) and the logistics to get around it were a pain. Whale watching in Kaikoura was much more tempting, and since we're were only going to be in New Zealand just this one time we decided to seize the opportunity to head east. It is an easy bus ride from Arthurs Pass to Christchurch. Then we'd go from Christchurch to Kaikoura, which is regarded as the best place in New Zealand to view whales.
While in Christchurch we stayed at the YMCA, which happened to have a street art gallery going on inside of it.
I'm not a big fan of street art, as you might be able to tell by the puzzled look on my face.
But I've grown fond of some artists, like Banksy.
This was my favorite painting.
This room was very interesting.
Here is Cody's favorite painting.
And the grand finale
We also went to the Willowbank Wildlife reserve to get a closer look at a kiwi. We'd been hearing them in the forests where we camped, but hadn't been able to see one in the wild.
The reserve was a really neat experience, we had a very cool encounter with Kiwis in their dark room.
And fed eels frozen chicken. We have seen these eels in the rivers all along the North island.
I made a friend.
And Cody made a friend.
Both of us concluded that we really liked Christchurch. After the earthquake many people left the city for either Wellington or Auckland. It seems like there is a very special community that stayed behind to help Christchurch rebuild itself.
February 23rd to 25th: Kaikoura
We had a 6:45 am bus ride to Kaikoura which meant we were at the bus stop at 6:15. Then we waited....and waited...
Another bus pulled up as we waited for ours to arrive. We watched with sleepy eyes as people began to board the one that just arrived. I checked my watch, 6:45....He should have been here. Worried we asked the bus driver available if he knew anything about our bus. Which he told us that ours hadn't arrived yet. It was pushing 7 so I called the bus line who informed us that we had missed our bus! This had to be a nightmare, it was the very last bus out of christchurch that we had booked and we missed it. I was convinced that the bus never showed. And thankfully so was the driver of the naked bus. But intercity bus line didn't want to hear it and refused to give us a refund. We were stranded! The bus driver was appalled by our treatment and offered us two free seats on his bus. This went from being our worst bus experience to the very best. We were incredibly lucky!
Milton (our hero) had only 2 seats left so we scrambled in and set in for the 3 hour ride.
Kaikoura's beautiful coast
Kaikoura is a very beautiful place. The small town is surrounded by high mountains that are covered in snow during the winter. This ex whaling community made big profits from whale watching tours and animal encounters. We both had reservations for a whale tour and I made a last minute booking for a seal encounter.
I'm usually prone to motion sickness in the car, and this was going to be my first experience on an extended boat trip. I had no idea what I had signed up for.
We booked the first tour and set out early in choppy seas. Conditions were rougher than normal and I tested out the vomit bag instantly- it worked!
I wasn't the only one vomiting it seemed like half the boat had used their vomit bags. Apparently I won the contest though for sea sickness. Cody didn't puke but he did feel a little queasy.
We didn't see a whale and had to reschedule for the next day.
Still nauseas from the boat I had to rush to catch my seal encounter.
Hopefully this would be a better experience with the ocean.
After checking in I was fitted with a wet suit, snorkel, and flippers. I had on a 7mm thick suit which meant putting my arms down at my sides became quite a chore. But on the plus side I'd float!
The boat ride to the seals was short, and once in the water we paddled out to the seals. They had placed us near a baby seal nursery and we were instructed to wait until the seals came to us.
The motion of the waves was really starting to get to me. As I bobbed up and down I had to take off my snorkel mask in case I had an emergency.
The seals wern't very active, about two swam in my general direction but sadly the seal swim was going to be a bust. After 3 hours of trying, we finally boarded back on the boat and headed home. Right before shore I had another bout of sea sickness and threw up off the side of the boat.
Once back on land all was well. I learned I was not meant for a life at sea.
The next day we were going out whale watching again in hopes of seeing at least one before leaving New Zealand. This time I was armed with Sea Legs and it was working quite well for me. Instead of being horribly sea sick I was very drowsy; for me that's a huge plus!
We tracked a male sperm whale for quite some time until he finally decided to resurface. The waters of NZ are too cold for the females so kaikoura bay is home to a large group of males all year round. The males can be as large as 20 meters. The specimen we saw was just a little smaller than the boat. He had been diving in the offshore canyons for 55 minutes and had finally surfaced to re oxygenate. Sperm whales have the largest noses and use them to cool/warm the oil in their heads to act as ballast. They are also incredibly aggressive and are known to attack other whales, and even humans that are trying to attack them.
It was an experience of a life time to see one if these guys just hanging out on the surface.
After stopping off by the fur seals we headed back to the shore.
We boarded a bus back to Christchurch which was the halfway point to get back on the TA trail.
February 25th to 27th: Christchurch
Once back in Christchurch we ran into 3 TA hikers. Andrew (Canada) Cracker jack (Germany) and Owl (Germany)
We had dinner with the two Germans, who we hadn't seen since Christmas.
Funny coincidence but Cracker Jack and my Mom have the same shirt.
After saying goodbye we boarded a bus that would take us back on the trail to Lake Tekapo.
Before leaving Cody had to leave his mark on the artists wall in the YMCA.
We will be riding in style coming back to the trail, Cody scored us two bikes for a 70 kilometer section. Something both of us are really looking forward to.
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