South Island Chapter 3

KAIKOURA 
A picture can tell a thousand words............

Our Bach for 3 nights

At "Artists Retreat" a beautiful bach (holiday home)
outside Kaikoura.  Pigs, cows, goats, chooks (chickens) a lamb,a donkey, a sheep. and doves all lived on the property. The Owner would let the kids feed the animals each morning. 

A face only a mother could love

Getting on the boat for our Dolphin Encounter

Waiting for the Pod of Dolphins to appear.

Lindsey getting ready to jump in with the dolphins

A deep ocean trench (as deep as 6,000 ft in some places) gets as close to 500 meters from the Kaikoura Coast.  This trench sustains a vibrant food chain supporting a variety of seabirds, marine animals, and fish species. Kaikoura is World famous for it's whale watching, dolphin encounters and albatross encounters. 

Swimming with a small pod of Dolphins.

Hot chocolate after swimming with the Dolphins.

Fine dining in Kaikoura

Lobster, mussels, scallops, salmon, shrimp, paua fritters, whitebait fritters,
and seafood chowder

Another beautiful sunset we were treated to in Kaikoura

A super hike that took us past tons of seals, and seabirds. 

Hundreds of Seagulls nesting.

Owen loved watching the Seals!!

"Take me to your leader"

Baby seal pups, dozens of them in a total natural setting.
They swim up a creek to a pond by a waterfall and play there
all day without any adult seals around,or predators to worry about, it was kinda like a baby seal daycare!! The baby seal pups then swim back out into the ocean at night to nurse with their mother. It was the most amazing wild animal encounter we have ever experienced. 

Back on the ferry headed home.

Wellington, back on the North Island after a great trip