February 11-14: Christchurch to Kaikoura and Nelson Lakes on the South Island

Flew to Christchurch, arriving at 8:35pm. After some anxiety about whether we could get into our hostel hotel at that late hour in the rain, we did get the night person to let us in. I was very annoyed but the room was nice and spacious and in a good location, so still a good option. Hostel was right across the street from this old college turned art center. Had a lovely eggs Benedict breakfast at a cafe within. Hostel also in between active downtown and the botanical gardens.

Met our free tour guide Demi outside the Art Center and enjoyed the walk through

town for 2 hours. She had lived in Christchurch her whole life and lived in a tent with

her family for 1.5 years after their home was flattened by the earthquake! Here Demi

activates the washing machine via her Bluetooth to play lively music on a vacant lot

turned into an outdoor disco!

This Bridge of Remembrance is about the two world wars and located at one

of the Avon river crossings. It is lit up with bright colors at night.

On the tour we saw the Isaac Royal Theatre which was very damaged by the

great recent earthquake here but actor Sir Ian McKellen (Gandolf in

Lord of The Rings) paid $300,000 to have it restored!

This is the Walk of Remembrance with the names of 186 killed in the 2011 earthquake.

After our tour we went to the botanical gardens and were impressed by some

NW cedar and Doug fir trees that could not have been planted more than

180 years ago but looked like they were 500 years old.

Enjoyed the Dahlia gardens in full bloom and noted how popular they were with the honey bees and bumblebees and even some flies that mimic honey bees.

After a nice lunch at the Gardens, where we avoided being mugged by seagulls, we

headed for this historical boat rental facility and ordered up a "punt." (Not to be confused with a "pint.")

Rowed the Avon along the banks of the Botanical Gardens along with some

Canadian Geese, Mallard ducks, and some New Zealand ducks. Had to

turn around when we hit shallow water.

Thought about going to play at the Royal but collapsed instead, hauling ourselves

out just in time for a very exotic "Mexican" meal.

I dodged the corn tortillas

infused with seaweed and had a peanut sauce taco and some fried chicken hunks

with very un-Mexican but quite good seasoning.

Next morning we caught an Uber to the RV rental facility and spent a couple of

hours getting oriented, grabbing donated foods from those leaving their RV's,

and unpacking into the RV so we could leave our big suitcases. Dirk did a great

job of driving the four hours up the coast line to Kaikouri, where we camped in a

no-frills grass patch right across from a gorgeous rocky beach and the trail that

led to the seal maternal colony.

Info about the seals at the start of the beach walk.

The "five minute walk" actually

took 45 minutes one way to reach the protected areas where mamas had

gathered and there were protected pools for their babies to play and practice

swimming skills in.

While Dirk rested from the stress of driving, I took advantage of low tide just

across from our campsite to walk the cool rock formations exposed and check

out the wildlife. See our RV in the distance.

Low tide discoveries: Mostly round snails and tiny black "New Zealand mud snails"

Limpet

Weird chain of balls

seaweed. No barnacles.

The next morning we killed time in the cute little tourist town Kaikouri that supports a

vigorous whale watching business. The reason for this is that the coast line

here is very close (500 meter) to a great underwater canyon that drops 900-1200

meters into a deep trench, the Kaikoura Canyon and Hikurangi Trench. That

is why sperm whales can be found here reliably.

Our Whale watching ship drove high speed to the off shore canyon and used a hydrophone to detect the ecolocation clicks of the sperm whale in the area. When we finally saw it at quite a distance, it fluked and dove (not because of us).

Unfortunately, once sperm whales dive they stay down an average of 45 minutes, so we floated about watching albatross until it finally came up again and this time we were quite close and watched it just hang out at the surface for about 7 minutes, spouting and resting until readyto go back down again.

Its behavior was very different form the fin, humpback, or

gray whales we have previously seen.

The highlight was not, however, the whale!!! We took a short detour on the way

back into a bay where the dusky dolphin's came to show off and play with us.

They leaped totally out of the water a lot, zoomed all around us, and one leaped

up and did a 360 degree flip in the air before landing head first back in the sea.

He did it twice! Amazing!!!

After the boat ride, we jumped in the Sprinter for a four hour drive into the interior

with Nelson Lakes National Park being our destination. Half way through we

stopped for gas and groceries and ice cream. The countryside is heavy with

vineyards and later just with pastoral land and barren hillsides, like California

in the Bay area.

We were supposed to check in at the visitor's center at Nelson Lakes NP, but it was

closed so we tried to find the camp host after driving around trying to understand

our map in the dark! Turns out our Bellbird section consisted of only two sites

and no labeling, but once we found the camp hosts and then our site, we were

all good. Actually heard the unusual and lovely song of the bellbirds.

In the morning we enjoyed the visitor's center and learned more about the invasive

animals (weasel, stoat, and ferret) but also about the beech tree forests we were about to hike through.

Found that the burned up trees were not really burned but were covered with a

black fungus.

Beneath that, scale insects burrowed into the bark and excreted

long strands of tree sap poop, and the end of each being a tiny ball of sweetness.

The trees were very popular with the honey bees and bumble bees and Dirk

and I each tried a taste. Best bug poop we've ever had!

Did the Peninsula hike in the morning and after a rest and lunch we went swimming,

but it was very cold so only I really swam. In retrospect, hanging out at the lake is where we got our first sand fly bites, that itched even after we had left New Zealand!