With little more planned than a walk round the Kaikoura peninsula this morning, I was up bright and early for no reason. This was mainly because the two Germans in my room had got up really early and did what felt like a constant rustling of bags which was really frustrating. With no reason to set out early for my walk which I was tying in with geocaching, the morning was spent doing various bits and bobs, most importantly planning my geocache route.
With a nice and sunny day once again I headed out into town where I had a series of caches in and around the streets of Kaikoura. Heading through the main shopping street to begin with, I got beach views once again before returning again to the whale bone walkway. From here it was into the more residential areas of Kaikoura, where all the streets seemed to be named after places from southern England! After heading as far as yet another housing development where they were selling patches of land, it was back down to the seafront, six caches in all for the morning.
I then begun my walk along the seafront so I could complete the scenic walk round the peninsula. It was primarily road walking for the start of the walk, passing the aquarium en route before heading round the corner to Fyffe House. The oldest surviving building in Kaikoura, this small cottage was home to the first European during Kaikouras whaling days. It is built on the rib of a whale and nowadays is a museum detailing the history of this controversial industry.
After detouring off the peninsula walkway to find a cache up a hill, which involved going through this field of cows which were scared of me, I took in the impressive coastal views up top. It was then back down to the road where I reached a car park full of people with cameras. I soon realised this was the local seal colony location and I had a free way of seeing them here! Despite previously seeing these creatures, this is the first time I have been so close and it was surprising just how big they were! Like the sea lions, they were pretty lazy, although at one point I accidentally nearly touched one when going round the corner and it just being there!
Spending a fair while at the seal colony, which were on these flat rocks which went a long way out to sea, I started heading up this path to the now cliff top as the road had finally ended. On a clear day apparently you can see the north island from up top, although it was a little overcast, not even being able to see the Kaikoura Ranges! From up here there was a high amount of bird life, although I don't have the knowledge to name what I saw. They were probably seagulls. The walk got pretty decent from here along the windy cliff edge, finding yet more caches along the way which took me up and down the cliffs at various points.
The next significant point I reached after heading more inland through fields was this lookout over the other side of Kaikoura down towards South Bay. It was starting to get drizzly at this point although I just about made out the outline of the coastline heading southwards. From the lookout the path began to sharply go downwards where I got my last couple of finds in South Bay, the streets here all being named after birds of New Zealand.
My final cluster of finds took me into the central part of the peninsula which was quite a way from the hostel and with the rain getting slightly more threatening it worried me slightly. After reaching the road which went up to the lookout we visited yesterday, I effectively headed up and over the hill eventually coming out to the coastal road I had been on in the morning. This signalled the end of my day, where I headed back to the hostel, stopping off at the four square en route for a very late lunch. In the end I got away with the weather as I only got drizzle.
Relaxing in the hostel room for a while, the light drizzle soon became heavy rain, although I soon realised I would have to go out as I had no food left. After seeing one of the people in my room come back from work like a drowned rat, I delayed it for as long as possible although I eventually got pretty hungry which meant I had to go out. In the end I managed to pick out a pretty moderate patch and completed the ten minute walk or so the new world where after getting food and free WiFi I headed back again. For dinner however I ended up having sausage and chips from the chip shop next door to my hostel which went down pretty well. After being soaked in the end from my trip to the supermarket, the evening was just spent in my hostel room as it wasn't worth going out again.
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