Tuesday 25^th November

Today was very cloudy and mist hid the mountains, although sometimes you could see a white peak peaking out. After an excellent breakfast we decided to walk down the main street and call in at the information centre. There we booked on a forty minute cave tour starting nearby at 10.30am. The cave is billed as the Maori Leap Cave because apparently a Maori warrior leaped down the 30-40m limestone cliffs to escape his enemies. Having donned helmets ourselves and a Danish couple were taken into the old sea cave which was only discovered in 1958 when a hole was blasted through into the roof of the cave while they were collecting limestone to grind down for fertiliser. It is quite a short cave system but has some nice examples of straws, stalactities, stalagmites, flows, and columns. A great old guy called Frank showed us around and obviously loves his cave – we loved it too!

We then decided to go for a drive to see if the weather would clear. It didn’t but the scenery was lovely as we wove our way to Waiau where we stopped for lunch. I was only going to have salad but ended up having lasagne and salad and the lasagne was even better than mine!

The mountains were shrouded in cloud but the lower hills and rivers were beautiful. The rivers in New Zealand are mainly very wide and mainly dry beds of gravel and stones with a tiny channel of water as they really only flow strongly when the snows melt in the mountains.

Once back in Kaikoura we drove around the peninsula to see a seal colony. We only saw a few seals but it was good walking across the limestone pavement exposed by low tide.

We had another excellent meal at the Green Dolphin – I had homemade fettucine with seafood followed by an amazing concoction called Fig salami with honeyed walnuts and blue cheese – they have a very clever chef!

Monday 24^th November

Today we drove down the east coast to Kaikoura. On the way we stopped at Ohau Point to look at the fur seals that nest really close to the road but protected by a rocky outcrop.

We had a picnic lunch before booking in for a whale watch tour at Kaukoura with 46 other hopefuls. We weren’t expecting much and were delighted when we came across a sperm whale quite soon. He was apparently well known locally and was busy sleeping but we were close enough to see his skin – he was only 20-30 metres away from the boat.

Many photos later we continued and on the way to another location where a whale had just been sighted, we came across another sperm whale that, after about five minutes, obligingly dived for us with a flick of his tail in the air. We then saw the third sperm whale who was a massive specimen and again quite close to the boat. Seeing his tail flukes lift up into the air as he dived was amazing. We also came across a large group of different birds (shearwaters, terns, albatross and petrels) but were unsure why they had gathered there as no fishing boat was near.

Once back ashore we drove up to a lookout and then found our B & B. A large, one-storey, rambling house with lots of rooms all set in a beautiful garden. The owner, Margaret, is a keen gardener but in her eighties, and is helped by her unmarried daughter, Nicky. The room is quite small and has no view but there is a guest lounge and a small kitchen/laundry. They have magnificent vegetable beds, all raised, a very large greenhouse full of tomatoes and twelve chickens. I have never seen such a good rhubarb crop as they have here!

We drove down the hill to a restaurant for dinner and liked it so much we are going back tomorrow! We got a lovely welcome and the atmosphere and the food were great.

Sunday 23^rd November

Iain pulled a muscle in his thigh yesterday so we decided to go for a drive along the coast and around. The coastal Queen Charlotte Drive skirts the coast with lots of great views and stopping points. We saw a couple of Weka en route as well. We drove to Havelock and then Nelson and went down route 6 past Richmond Range – all very scenic.

At Wakefield we stopped for lunch at a lovely little place: The Wakefield Villa Tearooms (the owner’s parents lived in Ashton and Oldham before coming out to NZ!) We had pasty and spinach and feta parcel respectively, with a salad that was one of the most interesting I’ve had with lettuce, cabbage, carrot, cress and seeds of various kinds sat out in the sunshine in their beautiful little garden – a real gem of a place.

We then turned down a minor road to Golden Downs. I think the name derives from all the yellow broom – I’ve never seen it growing so prolifically! We then drove back up the other side of the Range on route 63 past lots of vineyards to Blenheim and then back to Picton, where we dropped off the car, walked into town and had a beer in the sunshine.

We had an excellent dinner of garlic prawns, salt & pepper squid followed by Mahi (a type of white fish) served on mushroom risotto. It may sound strange but it really worked!

Saturday 22^nd November

Our first job was to go back to the ferry port (only 5minutes drive) because, very stupidly, we had left Iain’s camera and our fleeces on the back seat of the hire car. We realised almost as soon as we’d done it but were unable to retrieve our key so Hertz arranged for them to be sent over that night on the next ferry to collect in the morning.

Today the weather is rather wet but still quite warm so we went for a short circular walk around part of the promontory towards Bob’s Bay and happily the rain started to ease off. On our return I put some washing on and we went shopping for provisions – wine meatballs and pasta for tonight.

We went out for some lunch (seafood chowder – very good) before boarding a small boat at 1.30pm to go dolphin watching. It was quite windy and choppy as we motored up Queen Charlotte Sound but we did catch sight of a couple of Dusky Dolphins and some fur seals. We also saw some of the second rarest seabirds in the world – King Shags – that are only found in the outer part of Marlborough sound.

Apart from that we also saw Shearwaters, Australasian Gannets, Pied Shags and various others whose names I have forgotten! We also moored up at Motuara Island and walked up to Cook’s lookout where Captain Cook first saw Cook’s Strait. It was a steep climb up but the sun came out and the views were superb.

The weather was quite sunny early evening so we ate outside at some tables and chairs just below our verandah that were still in the sunshine.

Friday 21^st November

Today, having packed the car, we went for a short walk on the ridge above where we were staying to get some good sea views. The coast path wound several batteries and gun emplacements left over from WW2.

We then found our way to the Te Papa museum and spent a couple of hours looking at various interesting exhibitions on the history of New Zealand. One of the most interesting and shocking was a series of maps of New Zealand showing the original forested areas, then how it was depleted by the Maoris and early settlers and then by the influx of Europeans trading for the wood and clearing land for grazing. Another was an interesting film showing the origin of the Haka. Iain had a slight contretemps with a pillar in the museum car park when reversing out of our space, but luckily we have full insurance with no excess!

We found the ferry port and dropped off the car in plenty of time to catch the Interislander. The ferry crossing was uneventful and we like the look of Picton – a small harbour set in lovely countryside. Our motel room is spacious, well equipped and we have a great view of the harbour. We ate out tonight and had some lovely fish but intend to cook for ourselves tomorrow, for a change.