Whale watching at Kaikoura

 The first morning at Kaikoura I woke to find that it had snowed on the mountains during the night.

I had booked a trip on a whale watch boat. No sign of any so far.

A nice big sperm whale.

We waited for a while to see if this one was going to dive but our guide was sure it was going to sleep, so off in search of another.

A similar craft from the same fleet.

Another sperm whale.

And dolphins.

This one is preparing to dive.

The dolphins were even more exited than we were, they started attempting to fly. I am sure I heard “goodbye and thanks for all the fish”

Another seal colony.

Our third whale of the day.

Blood full of oxygen again, time to go in search of food.

Time for us to go back to land, we had been out most of the day.

French Pass to Kaikoura

After leaving Mapua, I spent a day in Nelson then travelled on to Blenheim via French Pass, this took me a lot further out of my way than I had anticipated but the views were spectacular.

25km each way of unmade road that followed the mountain ridge most of the route. The surface was loose gravel, the road was only one vehicle wide and I have to admit in the van I was a bit apprehensive at times.

I reached the town late in the afternoon. There were camping facilities on a car park with toilets and cold showers.

I travelled across the Marlborough wine growing area and down past Cloudy Bay to Blenheim where I stayed the night and continued to Kaikoura the next day

Mapua and Golden Bay

A tidy little 3 bedroom house for sale £45,000, in a nicely situated country town. Pity I only have a six month visa.

After leaving Reefton I headed north to Mapua, camping in a D.O.C. site for the night at St. Arnaud by Lake Rotoiti. This is a Department of Conservation area with some very good forest walks, with a lot of information on the conservation work that is being done.

Honey production in this area is big farming business, I was talking to one lady who manages 2000 hives. There are apiaries everywhere.

 

I arrived in Mapua April 5th and spent the Easter staying with friends. It was good to sleep in a bed and relax for a few days. Their garden extended down to the beach of the river estuary.

Plenty of wildlife.

After Easter I continued north west to Golden Bay. There was some beautiful scenery but the weather was not too good. I followed the  coast road to Farewell Split.

Coffee and carrot cake at the cafe with views of the Spit.

The black dots in the water are Aussie black swans they have adapted to salt water and have become a pest, there are thousands of them all through Golden Bay

I drove across the cape to Whanganui beach, there is a campsite there where I intended to stay the night.

Access to the beach is across these sand dunes.

When I reached the beach the weather was defiantly on the turn and it started to rain, I got back to the van without getting too wet.

See the difference in the sky over about 2 hours in the last 6 pictures. The rain was set in for the day, so I decided not to stay but return to Collingwood for the night.

The following day I visited  Pupu Springs, (Waikoroppupu) they claim to have the clearest water in the world and I don’t doubt that.

Spot the trout!

A cheeky poser. Whilst I was reading the sign.

I discovered another interesting forest walk to the source, or the resurgence of the Riwaka River.

The river starts from this cave under the mountain.

Earlier I mentioned the future intended renovation of the Reefton hydro station. This is an example of a similar project mostly done by a group of enthusiastic volunteers. This plant was in much the same state as the Reefton unit and after a lot of work it is now supplying 800MW per annum to the grid.

I returned to Mapua at the end of the week and spent the weekend with my friends again.

Linda, Lionel and their daughter Pamela.

I was staying in Mapua during the weekend of the annual pumpkin competition, The winner weighed in at 616kg.

I am not sure of the weight of the second.

There were many smaller entries.