Part 5: Kaikoura, New Zealand

View of the Kaikoura Ranges, along the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway

We caught the early morning train from Christchurch to Kaikoura, a 3 hour journey to the north coast of the southern Island, with lots of lovely pastoral views along the way. The name in Maori literally means "to eat crayfish," and the ones that live here are huge! There is a deep off-shore canyon very near to the coast, which brings pods of local Dusky dolphins within viewing distance of the train. Our entire car was excitedly crowding the windows, watching them flipping and diving in the distance. Preview of coming attractions...

We hustled with our bags from the small town center to our rental to to get situated, grabbed lunch, and hurried back for our dolphin swim adventure. Only 2 of our group planned to swim with the dolphins, and the other 4 of us were watching from the boat. They put on a show full of acrobatics, doing backflips, diving and breeching, tail slapping, and swimmimg belly to belly. The dolphins loved to play chase every time the boat started, rushing towards us only to do a u-turn at the prow and speed along just in front of us. I swear they loved it more the faster we went. We saw Bottlenose, Dusky, Common dolphins, and one rare and tiny Hector Dolphin. We also saw several Royal Albatross, strafing us and folding their 6 foot wingspan up like the doors on a Delorian.

The next day's challenge was to hike as far as we could get before our train departure. We hustled along the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway, taking in the stunning scenery and trying our best to make it to the resident seal colony. We got to the edge of it and spotted a few resting on the rocks, but then needed to start the long trek to back to the train station, back to Christchurch, on to Queenstown the next day...