Kaikoura / Picton / Wellington, New Zealand

8th – 12th Feb

After my dolphin swim I headed through Christchurch and on up to Kaikoura.

I had to stop off at a cafe along the way for some food and drink. I happened to have my camera with me when I went to the toilet. LOOK! I had to take my bag with me to the toilet - it wasn't for another peeping session in the womens toilet! Anyway I took some pics of the jokes on the wall - I am sure you've heard them all before but seeing them on a toilet wall does make them funnier!





Once I got to Kaikoura I booked myself into another smallish hostel. As I could not go on a dolphin swim I decided that this would be the ideal place to do some Sea Kayaking so I booked myself onto a guided tour the next day.

Early the next morning I headed to the Kayak place and met up with the guide and the other people doing the tour. We were taken out to another bay just beyond Kaikoura were we would be going into the water.

We also met up with the rest of the group which turned out to be a French family of 5. Because each Kayak had to have 2 people we were all paired up. I ended up with one of the French couples kids – their small boy call Artonne or something like that. He was about 6 years old and could not speak a word of English. I nicknamed him R2-D2.

So off we went with me and R2-D2 bringing up the rear. Every now and then he would make a vain attempt to use his paddle but he soon discovered he didn’t have to as I was doing all the work.

It was a nice gentle trip and we seen a blue penguin as well as getting up close to some fur seals (yes penguins and seals AGAIN). No dolphins however although apparently its rare to see them when you are sea kayaking. Another lack of forethought on my account as I had hoped that we would be in the thick of dolphins when doing the kayaking – ah well there is always next time I am in New Zealand.


DM wants to paddle.


R2-D2 at the front of out x-wing - i mean kayak.


Blue penguin


R2-D2 is getting bored


So is he!

After the kayaking I continued my journey up the East coast to Picton where I would be able to get the ferry over to Wellington the next day. I booked into tombstone backpackers (so called because it’s just across the road from the cemetery – very jolly!). I picked this place because it got a good BBH rating and it was right next to the ferry terminal so I wouldn’t have to drive too far.

That night I had planned to go to some pubs in the town (the hostel manager said there was a good Scottish pub with live music) but the weather had other ideas as it started pouring down with rain all night. I ended up staying in the hostel and having an early night.

The next day I took the ferry over to Wellington. It’s meant to be a very picturesque crossing of 3 hours but all I seen was mist as we navigated through Queen Charlotte sound.


Wonderful Picturesque Queen Charlotte Sound!

Once I got to Wellington I discovered I had a large disadvantage in having a car as you had to pay everywhere for car parking. In the end I headed out of the city and found another remote backpackers called Moana Lodge. It was another one of those places were you left your shoes at the front. The place was about 15km from Wellington but you could get back into the city by rail – which I duly did. The weather was still not the best and I ended up in the Library on the internet for most of the afternoon before getting some grub in an Irish bar (an overpriced dish which they called Kerry stew).

Before I started getting too comfortable I curtailed my drinking. I would have to drive from the train station to the hostel at the other end so I didn’t want to be pissed when I did it. I ended up having another early night back at the hostel (I think I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms at this point!) Wellington was going to have to be another one of those places I would do on my return to New Zealand as the next day I headed inland to hopefully kick start my North Island adventure.

Things I have learnt.

I thought the place names in the South Island were bad until I got to the North Island. Most of the Maori tribes lived in the North Island so a lot of the towns and villages are still called by their Maori name. I have never seen so many weird place names - none of which I can pronounce:
Whararoa, Pakakarakarakakra (or something) Wakarara, Turangi, Whanganui, Wankers Wrist, Te Pokwawakaroa, Katikati, Kitkat, Kaik-marks-on-my-pants etc etc

Dolphin Swim - Akaroa, New Zealand

I'M BACK!! I have wifi in my new hostel in downtown Buenos Aires so Its back to the blog. I know now that I will never get fully up to date with it before I go home in 3 weeks but as I have no job to go back to and the world has gone to pot in the time I have been away I am sure I will have plenty of time to finish it off when I get back (of course I can go off and do some more travelling as well!)

First I forgot to add in the glossary update from my last post:

Glossary update:

W
Woofing: Woofing is an acronym which stands for ‘Willing Workers On Organic Farms’. Its an organisation primarily set up initially in Australia as a way of working for room and board on organic farms (obviously). Nowadays its used not only for organic farms in Australia but also in other countries and for other things – in the case of Chillawhile people were just working for their board through Woofing – most hostels have some of their guests doing cleaning and maintenance jobs for their keep anyway.

Here’s the website if your interested - except its now called Worldwide opportunities on Organic Farms (make up your bloody mind!)

Back to Akaroa:

7th - 8th Feb

Akaroa is a small seaside village about 70km south of Christchurch on the Banks peninsula. On the other side of the peninsula is Lyttleton the place I looked down on from the the top of the Christchurch Gondola. The Banks peninsula is actually the remnants of an extinct volcano and if you looked at it from above you could see the conical shape of the area.

I arrived in Akaroa just after 3pm on Saturday to a town full of weekend day trippers. I had not booked any place before arriving so was quite lucky to get a bed in the first hostel I tried called Le Bons Bay.

I was shown to my dorm by a middle aged English woman. It turned out that both her and her husband were themselves woofing in the hostel. In fact they were sleeping in the room next to my dorm. Nothing too weird about that except that in order to get to my dorm I had to go through their room! The whole place had too much of an old feel to it – which was confirmed by my bed linen which not only included sheets and a duvet but also a pair of slippers and a hot water bottle!


My OAP bed linen

I quickly got out of the place and did a roam around the town. First port of call was the dolphin place on the pier to confirm my booking for the following day. I wanted to make damn sure that I was going on this dolphin swim.

After that I walked around the area but quickly exhausted all the sights so I headed for one of the pubs for some grub and a pint. Once I had finished the grub (a healthy sausage egg and chips!) I did a bit more walking and happened upon of all things a sulphur crested cockatoo in one of the trees – not your normal New Zealand bird.


A weird garden - someone has a foot fetish!


Cockatoo

I tried to stay out of the hostel for as long as possible which meant trying to get a compromise between drinking and having a clear head in the morning. The second bar I ended up in was showing the final of the Wellington sevens rugby tournament between New Zealand and England. It was a frantic game which England won in the very last play of the game much to the disgust of everyone in the bar.

Finally I went back to the hostel, through the English couples room (thankfully they were asleep) and into my own dorm which already had 2 or 3 other young people in bed.

Early the next day I got up and out for the dolphin swim. Swimming with dolphins is one of those 101 things to do before you die and this was my second attempt at it. I even paid for a cheap plastic camera with underwater casing – similar to the throw away ones you get but with the advantage that you could actually use it again and again with new films.


Unfortunately DM could not come with me as I might lose him :(

We were soon on our way fully kitted out with wetsuit mask and snorkel. It wasn’t long before we seen our first dolphins – 2 or 3 of them. Boy were they small! Unfortunately these ones were too intent on feeding to bother with us. For the next 2 or 3 sightings it was the same thing – the dolphins came and had a look then swam away.

Finally a group of them decided to hang around and we were in business. We quickly got in the water (there were about 8 of us swimming) and waited for them to come up close. Some people were given stones to knock together in order to make sound waves in the water.

The next 40 minutes (that’s how long you are allowed in the water with them) were probably some of the most comical in my life. These tiny dolphins (about 1,5 metres) were darting in between our group while everyone was trying to get photographs of them. There were only about 10 in total but sometimes it just seemed that every time I looked one way the dolphin would appear just behind me. I actually thought it was like a scene out of a bad pantomime – he’s behind you – no he isn’t – Yes he is.

The experience did not turn out to be the life changing event I had anticipated. For one thing the dolphins were just too quick and the water was too murky to get a good look at them underwater. For another thing my photos when I got them developed turned out to be probably the worst shots anybody could ever take. My only excuse is that with digital cameras these days I am used to having what I see in the view finder on the actual photo. This camera was the old type – view finder at the top, lens in the middle. This resulted in great shots of my fingers!

Worst underwater shots ever

I have to say I still loved the experience and would do it again – with a bloody good underwater camera this time!

Things I have learnt:

Even if you are ‘touching cloth’ as I was after my swim it pays to make sure there are urinals in the public toilets you have just entered. I did not and soon realised I had inadvertently gone into the women’s toilets. (the sanitary towel bucket was another giveaway). Before I could rectify my mistake two Kiwi girls came in to go to the loo. I had images of myself being carted off in a police van to the sex offenders centre so I decided to just sit it out (literally). The two girls both went to separate cubicles – one right beside me – then proceeded to shout a full conversation while ‘doing the business’ – I thought they would never shut up! Eventually they left and I quickly cleaned up (wiped my arse) and ran into the men’s loo so that I could wash up and cooly exit the facilities as if nothing had happened.

Featured Animal:

Hectors Dolphin.

The dolphins I was swimming with are called Hectors Dolphin. It is only found in New Zealand is the smallest dolphin in the world and pretty rare with only about 7,000 in existence. Thankfully New Zealand has set up marine reserves in areas were they are most common – like the Banks peninsula.


Hectors dolphin


There is also a subspecies called the maui dolphin which inhabits just one area in the north island. This species is one of the rarest dolphins in the world with little over 100 specimens. With that number things do not look good for its survival as it only takes 2-5 deaths a year from boating accidents or net entanglements to produce a reduction in the numbers.

More info

End of blog (for the moment)

Things I have lost / broken

I´m afraid that I might have left my usb pen in the computer the last time I updated the blog which means that its gone. So until I buy another one I have no way of updating the blog from my laptop. I should be able to get wifi in Buenos Aries but until then I am going off line - sorry.