Kaikoura

After waking up in Wellington nice and early for the ferry, we were saddened to see that the weather outside was very Welsh – torrential rain. We jumped in a taxi with a Canadian (who claimed to have spent the last two years training tigers in Thailand and then another six months in New Zealand) and his Asian girlfriend to save us all walking to the ferry terminal. We got to the ferry terminal and checked in and waited to board, it felt a bit like waiting to cross from Dover to Calais as the ferries are a similar size and the crossing a similar length in time.

The ferry journey from Wellington to Picton was comfortable enough, it took around three hours and we spent time our relaxing reading newspapers and our kindles in the reclining chair lounge. We had a short stop off in Picton whilst we waited for the bus to take us to Kaikoura and whilst we were browsing in the gift shop I got talking to the lady who worked there – she said New Zealanders felt the Welsh were “done” by Alain Rolland in the RWC Semi Final against France i.e. Sam Warburton’s red card and New Zealanders wanted the final to be Wales vs. New Zealand. In my head I was saying “YES – it’s not just me (and Wales) who thought we were done”. I’m not bitter or anything, honest, I just feel that Alain Rolland made the worst call of the Word Cup, ruined the semi-final and allowed the lesser team to qualify – the lesser team which he has a parent descended from…he’s impartial obviously. Apparently Kiwis think he is biased in favour of South Africa whenever New Zealand play the Springboks and he officiates so they think just as little of him (as a referee I should add, I’m sure he’s a decent enough bloke) as I do.

When we finally got on our bus journey to Kaikoura, which only took two hours, we hopped off the coach and walked through the pleasant little town that is reminiscent of a Welsh sea side town (lots of cafes, souvenir shops and fish and chips) until we got to our hostel (Dusky Lodge, named after the Dusky Dolphins found off the coast). The hostel was lovely, it had two pools, a sauna, a few living rooms that were a generous size, two kitchens and a couple of wood burning heaters that Nicola and I spent an evening reading in front of – bliss. The first evening we went to the local fish and chip shop for dinner, where we had a lasagne topper (a bread crumbed portion of lasagne deep fried – the Scottish would LOVE it!) which, despite being an unorthodox take on lasagne, was delicious.

We planned to go whale watching the next day but we found the trips to be expensive and besides, when we woke up the weather was blowing a storm; gale force winds, torrential rain and a cold crispness in the air. Neither Nicola nor I fancied spending three hours on a boat in those conditions, that’s even if the boats would have gone off as we were told the trips depended on the weather. As our trip was rained off we spent our day relaxing, resting our sore feet from all our walking and doing tasks we had previously been too busy to complete i.e. washing (our clothes not us, our personal hygiene has been tip-top…mostly).

 

On our final morning in Kaikoura the weather was clear and sunny (typical) and for the first time since we arrived we could see the impressive Kaikoura mountain range that lay beyond the town; the previous bad weather had obscured the mountains beneath a thick layer of mist. We had our third portion of chips in three days whilst waiting for our bus to Christchurch and whilst I was in the chippie I spotted a map of South Wales that people had added their names to their respective towns. Naturally I got a pen and added our names and circled Killay (it was that much to scale), so if you are ever in Cooper’s Catch in Kaikoura take a look on the map of South Wales on the right hand wall and see if you can spot our names (in red ink Joel & Nic 2013).