The Big Adventure: To eat crayfish...

120 k's from Hanmer further up the east coast lands us in Kaikoura - known to locals as "a little slice of paradise". Before leaving Hanmer we took on one final activity, a 3 hour return bush walk to Dog Stream Waterfall. True to form it hammered down for the entire walk but the 45 meter free flowing waterfall at the end was well worth it.

Kaikoura was the name given to the area by the Maori, and means "to eat" (kai) "crayfish" (koura). Something we have always done when passing through here is go out and catch some, this time would be no different. We hooked up with a fishing charter run by Gerry and captained by our very own pirate Nick. He wasn't a real pirate, but he did genuinely have a wooden leg and no fingers....presumably lost in a fishing accident but out of common decency know one asked him how it happened, we just stared at it all the time...as you do...

The main catch was the bright orange sea perch, as is common in these waters. The oceanogrophy is unique in Kairoura and is one of only 3 places in the world that sits on an underwater continental shelf. This means the depth is approximately 200 meters just off the shore and then plummets straight down to over 1600 meters deep. This allows whale colonies to feed in the canyon and an abundance of marine life to thrive here. Naomi caught her first ever fish! In fact she went on to catch 3 FISH!

You get to keep what you catch on the charters and we were lucky enough to also pull up 5 crayfish which we drown in fresh water and froze to take home - DELICIOUS!!!

All around the area Seals are playing along the coastline. There is one special spot where they clamber over rocks up a stream and bathe in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. In the afternoon when we took a walk up there we were lucky enough to find 6 of them playing in the water. When we turned to leave there was a seal right behind us blocking our path...it seems that the lazy ones don't climb the river but prefer to take the easy route and walk along the tourist pathway! Its surprising how comfortable they are around people, although they will you give a nasty bite if you get too close.

You can't come to Kaikoura and not go out on a whale watching trip. Leaving from south bay the boat races out to where the shelf drops away and joins another spotting boat which was tracking a passing sperm whale. They dive for around 40 minutes, so the dive time and location is recorded and the boats return when the 40 minutes is up. There are a resident population of sperm whales but we were lucky enough to catch a sighting of 2 whales who were transiting through the waters. Sperm whales are the largest toothed predator on the planet, weighing up to and over 60 tonnes. Hugely majestic and awe inspiring when the blow hole spouts off in the distance and the boat pulls alongside to say hello. After about 5 minutes of re-oxyginisation the head drops, the back bends up and that awesome tail flies up into the air. Incredible. The tail of a sperm whale is referred to as "the hand of god", not because of any association with Maradona, but because if you were under it when it smashed down on you like a fist the next person you're likely to meet is the so called creator.