Stop number 11, our first in the South Island, was Kaikoura, a lovely little town on the north east coast. We worked this into our route plan when we learned of the countless wild seals that can be found in the area and it’s fair to say Kaikoura delivered on this front beyond all expectation!
Upon arriving in the South Island after the ferry trip from Wellington, we began our 2 hour drive down the east coast to Kaikoura. About 10km short of reaching our destination, Hannah screamed with excitement as she yelled “OH MY GOD SEALS!! THOSE ROCKS ARE COVERED IN SEALS!!!”. We pulled over and to my surprise, she was in no way exaggerating; the rocks along this patch of coastline were absolutely crawling in wild seals and their pups! We clambered over the rocks and worked our way across to where the bulk of them were laying and playing around. It was truly an unbelievable sight.
The photos go some way to showing the extent of the seals that were chilling just a few metres away from us, but we managed to get some video footage that does a much better job.
Most of the seals chilling on the rocks were big fat things, but in one of the little pools between the larger rocks was a group of what must have been about 40 seal pups jumping around all over the place. The total number of seals in this immediate area was certainly in the hundreds.
So, before even reaching our destination, we had seen what we came to see! But we eventually tore ourselves away from the seals and pressed on to the town of Kaikoura. We drove straight through to the holiday park we were staying at which was just a few kilometres south of the town at Peketa Beach. It was perfect – we had our pick of the non-powered camping area which was right on the beach front with heaps of space. When we parked up in the spot we would be sleeping that night, we instantly knew that this was our favourite place so far, certainly in terms of accommodation. Going to sleep to the sound of the waves and waking up to a stunning sunrise over the sea view was nothing short of magic. The beach was very remote as well so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves along with the handful of others that were camping in the non-powered area.
Onto the town of Kaikoura itself – again we really, really liked it. It’s small but has a very pleasant town centre which sits right next to the waterfront. A little further along from the centre was yet another seal hotspot, but this time only a small handful, nothing like the treat we had on the way in! However, these seals were obviously very at home here as a couple of them had come a fair way inland to find a bed in the form of the public footpaths!
It was quite surreal to be walking along and suddenly have your path blocked by a giant seal! I’m sure the novelty has well and truly worn off for the residents of Kaikoura, but for us, it was the highlight of our day!
We didn’t have great weather for our only full day in Kaikoura as a glorious morning suddenly turned into what felt like a winter’s day, but we put some layers on and walked a section of the iconic Kaikoura peninsula. The walk goes along the cliffs that you see in the following picture, offering some fantastic views of the bays below.
Another of Kaikoura’s best and most defining features are the huge mountain ranges that tower over the horizon across the entire length of the town. It was a stunning sight; it almost looked like one of those pantomime backdrops that someone was about to knock down – it was just picture perfect. Unfortunately, when the weather turned sour, they quite literally disappeared from view, but we enjoyed them when we had the chance.
All in all, we loved Kaikoura. It offered a very unique experience in the context of our travels so far and the holiday park on the remote beach was just perfect… it’s definitely one of our favourite destinations so far – Hannah even ranks it as her outright favourite!
I should probably mention that one of the main reasons people flock to Kaikoura is for whale watching, with options to view them via boat trips, plane rides and helicopter rides! We were all about the seals though! The whales would have been cool to see, but we weren’t bothered enough to pay $140 each.
Anyway, it’s now onto our next stop; a long drive back up north and around to Abel Tasman, one of my most hotly anticipated destinations!