Kaikoura
What a memorable trip! We decided to take off to Kaikoura from Thursday to Saturday a week before Thanksgiving. First leg was flight to Christchurch which took 40 minutes and then the drive to Kaikoura which took exactly three hours. Their still working on highway 1 after the major earthquake last year so we took a detour through 7 and 70. We arrived to our motel around 1 and after feeding Aiden, decided to check out the seals and do a little hike. The views were amazing! I didn’t realize Kaikoura was surrounded by snow capped mountains and the ocean was crystal clear blue. Luckily, we spotted one seal sunbathing on top of a rock and then we walked a little bit up the peninsula walkway and took some great pics. For dinner, we had a fish barbeque and had a smorgasbord or crayfish, scallops, salmon, mussels, and whitebait. Yum!!
The next day was our whale watching trip and we had a 1030 meeting time. After the 5 minute safety brief at 11, we all took a bus to the boat. Very cozy inside and great commentary and video of the Kaikoura marine life and a nice facts about whales. After half hour or so, we spotted our first sperm whale and it was unreal! I caught a shot of him diving into the ocean and we saw the whale again half hour later. They stay up on the surface for 10 minutes or so before diving again for food and staying underwater for 30-40 minutes. On the way back to shore, we were fortunate to see a group of dolphins surrounding a humpback whale and took some great videos and pictures of that as well. Well worth it and an experience I will never forget!
Afterwards, we had pizza and ice cream and headed back to motel. Aiden was tired but seemed to enjoy the area. He was riding his luggage scooter everywhere and people commented how cool it was. All in all, a great trip and we made it back on Saturday a day before Mom/Dad arrive.