Thursday - January 16, 2014 Kaikoura,

THURSDAY – JANUARY 16, 2014

BOTTOM LINE:

Drove from Christchurch to Kaikoura

BACK STORY:

Although we had a private double room at the YMCA Hostel, it had no promises of being quiet.  With many of the hostels and hotels in Christchurch damaged from the earthquakes, those left standing have taken up the slack packing weary travelers into every available bed. 

Our windows on the second floor faced the street.  There was a constant flow of buses parking, buses opening their doors, travelers rolling their luggage wheels across the sidewalk, bus doors closing and buses driving away throughout the night.  Poor nights sleep.

Our bus with a new driver named, “Toddy” picked us up at 9:30 am.  It was a short day of travel up the Canterbury Plains and over to eastern coast. We took our morning tea break in the small town of Chevoit and arrived to our destination of Kaikoura by 11:30am.

Kaikoura is an active tourist and fishing town on the Pacific coast. Crawfish is the big item to catch in the area.  A crawfish is NOT the small crustacean that we know of in the west.  It is similar to the spiny lobster found in the Florida Keys.

Kaikoura on Pacific Ocean

Tourists flock to the area for a chance at seeing dolphin, sperm whales, New Zealand Fur Seals and swimming with the dolphins in the wild.  We chose to go on a whale watching adventure.  Unfortunately when we went to check in the female guide informed us that a front was blowing in and the two systems were making it very choppy out where the boats go.  The decision as to whether we wanted to go was ours.  We declined.

Bruce decided to connect with some guys that were interested in a fishing trip to the ocean.  I chose to walk around the town and do nothing but look.  Two hours into my relaxing time, Bruce called saying that they had caught their limit and were headed in.  I picked up a few things at the grocery store and headed back to the hostel.

The Skipper of the boat has a house near the ocean and invited us to a crawfish feed at 5pm.  We were also invited to join in with a group from the The “Stray” tour group (much like our Kiwi Experience, but more mature career participants) invited us to join them for fish and chips with a beach fire at 8pm.  We were told that we could take our fish to “Don’s Café” in Kaikorua and they would cook the fish that Bruce caught.

   

Captain's house for crayfish feed

 

Enjoying Stray tour guests

 

Barb's lesson in proper cutting

We showed up at 8pm but there was a misunderstanding.  The fish needed to be taken earlier to be cooked/prepared.  The bus couldn’t wait for us to have our fish cooked so he suggested that he take the fresh fish and we just eat with the rest of the group.  We were game.

Beach fire

For some reason we thought that the picnic/bonfire would be at the city beach near the town center.  To our surprise the bus went out of town by about 5 miles to a remote beach.  We all gathered driftwood for a nice hot fire.

A sudden wind directional change occurred which kicked up in ferocious fury on the ocean.  White caps sent salty spray in all directions. Somehow in the wind, the bonfire started and it’s warm felt good against our cold bodies.  Everyone enjoyed the fresh fish and chips except the fisherman, Bruce.  It was gobbled up before he could get a piece.

Within an hour it started raining so we killed the fire and ran for the bus.  The driver left us off at our hostel.  Everyone on the bus yelled out to us a big thank you for coming along.  It was a fun and crazy evening…one for the good memory bank!  Sweet as!