Kaikoura is a quaint, coastal town with the glistening turquoise water of the Pacific in it’s front-yard and majestic snow-capped mountains of the Seaward Kaikoura Range in it’s backyard; simply put, Kaikoura is beautiful! If we could have stayed for the entire four months, we would have. In fact, we’ll most likely go back before we leave the South Island – it’s that good people!
“come and open up your folding chair next to me…”
Unfortunately, we had a few days of less that pleasant weather. Rain and rough seas put a bit of a damper on our WOLOtude, making the popular Kaikoura whale watching excursion less than appealing (especially for those of us with weak sea legs).
With the WOLOmeter sitting a little lower than usual, we decided a Kean Point adventure would be the perfect fix! With rain jackets in hand, we spent hours exploring the seemingly endless tide pools. While it may not sound all that exciting, we had a great time hunting for sea stars of all shapes, sizes, and colors, shrimp, nursery fish, crabs, and the occasional sea anemone – all of this just meters from the pounding waves and the squealing, playful fur seal pups.
“my feet are buried in the sand and there’s a breeze…”
“the sea is just a wetter version of the sky…”
“now I’ve been sitting on this abandoned beach for years…”
“…waiting for the salty water to cover up my ears”
“the tide come in to take me home…”
We lost track of time playing in the tide pools until the rising tide indicated that we should hit the road for our next adventure. On our way out of town we stopped at Poppy’s street-side cart for some ‘homemade ice cream’ (something surprisingly hard to come by here in NZ). The owner was a lovely Kiwi with some WOLOtude of her own and we wish her much success! Hopefully, we’ll make it back to Kaikoura to try some more of her delicious flavors and maybe even squeeze in some whale watching!
Next stop: Christchurch
– Go. Change your state of mind.
WOLOtude 