30 degrees, sunny
Another early start today for a seal kayaking trip – actually is wasn’t paddling but peddling in a kayak. They were fitted with a new device that you peddle but instead of driving a propeller they drove flippers that went side to side, muck like the fins of a fish. Unfortunately they did add about 15 inches to the draft and could only go forwards. To reverse still needed a paddle. Otherwise they worked very well, much easier than conventional paddling and we seemed to go quite quickly.
It was a lovely, clear day with a calm sea which was handy as we had to peddle quite a long way from the launch point to the area where the seals were (the same ones we’d seen from above yesterday). We did actually see quite a few seals this time! Swimming about around us and on the rocks, and we also peddled up to an Albatross waiting patiently next to a fishing boat hoping for some scraps.
We were out for about an hour and a half which was plenty for the legs and lovely to be out on the water.
After this we travelled up the coastline towards Blenheim, our next stop. About an hour out of Kaikoura we came to Ohua Point which really did have a seal colony worth looking at. Right below the road were loads of seals, adults and young sunning themselves or gambolling about in the water – absolutely lovely.
Apparently there was a 7.8 earthquake around Kaikoura in 2016 which caused quite a lot of damage too, and raised the coastline by 2.5 to 4.5 metres, which explains the weird coastline rock formations and gives the seals a much bigger area to use too..
The coastline view again was stunning, blues, greens, aquamarines – all shades, but unfortunately the camera doesn’t really pick these up very well.
We arrived at the campsite at about 5 pm. Lovely large pitch right next to the clearest stream we have ever seen, and a lovely shade of blue too. So tempting to go for a swim but it is very cold, so watch this space!