Kaikoura, seals and scenery

It was fantastic to once again hit the road towards Kaikoura.
You just can't get away from those selfies when you are in a car !

Our lunch stop was at one of my favourite wineries, Pegasus Bay, in Waipara.  The weather was pleasantly warm and although most chose to stay indoors, we thoroughly enjoyed the massive garden all to ourselves, with the most delicious platter of antipasto imagineable - colourful, tasty and really different. It didn't matter at all that we had no wine. The water was marvelous!

These blogs will have somewhat of a toilet and poster theme. We noticed some really great toilet signs during our trip.

and some great posters I could relate to!

All good things have to come to an end and so we left the winery paradise and continued on our way. The previous week there had been floods and rock slides throughout NZ and also in the Kaikoura area, so sadly the beautiful coastal road was shut once again - those poor workers have a never-ending job trying to keep it open. Even the Inland road had been closed due to flooding and slides, but they had done a brilliant job to open it.

You certainly did not get the feeling that you wanted to hang around in some areas! However, I felt very safe (not sure about Dennis?). The road is stunningly beautiful with a very curvy, undulating road (and I don't mean the undulations caused by the earthquakes!) The road no longer has the number of roadworks which we had seen in February, so most of the trip could be done at 50 kph and not 30 kph. It still gave us time to enjoy the spectacular colours of the tussock grass covering the hillsides and to watch huge flocks of sheep being taken up to the hills, driven by only a couple of sheepdogs - amazing.

Kaikoura is now bustling again thankfully and it was great to see so many tourists there. As we found last time, it does not look like a town hit by a 7.8 earthquake. Most places are open, the road is pretty good and the seals were back in abundance

some up close and personal.

The only real sign of action was when this chap needed to have a pee. Clever guy wriggled his way to the edge of the boardwalk and peed under it!!!Very sensible indeed. He didn't seem at all worried that he had several tourists taking photos of him as he did this.

The next morning, I got woken pretty early by what seemed to be an incredible volume of traffic for a place which is cut off to the north. Anyway, rather than lie in bed feeling a bit brassed off at the rude awakening, I saw that the sun was rising and made the most of this gorgeous time of day. The colours were so exceptional and the solitude made everything seem even more special.

My version of a selfie!!!

As the sun rose, everything was bathed in the warm orange and golden rays. It was awesome. I did wonder whether I should go back and haul Dennis out of his room, but decided against this. Down at the seal colony, sleepy seals were totally unphased by the early bird tourist paparazzi!

Dennis was fortunate enough to see all the seals I had seen earlier, but missed the exceptional sunrise. Never mind, the landscape there is so incredible, that it does not really matter what time of day you turn up.

We headed up the hill to an unforgettably breathtaking view of the coastal area.

Next time I must walk round the peninsular, now that I know that the pathway has reopened.  There were hundreds of seals dotted around. Just like old times! This walkway is, in my opinion, one of the most spectacular ones you can do, and very few people seem to know about it. You just have to check the tides very carefully as there are areas you can be cut off by the tide and some places where you almost have to step over seals to get round the corner!

It was fantastic to share one of my favourite places with such a wonderful friend.

We had a brilliant one-night stay in Kaikoura. Too short, but we certainly packed a lot in and saw some fantastic sights. What a perfect start to our trip!