View walking to the main street
from my motel
Kaikoura is a pleasant little town, with lots of shops and restaurants on its main street catering to tourists. The beach there is rocky rather than sandy, but the water is still that magnificent shade of blue. Why is it every rock looks worthy of picking up and pocketing? It's not so much a sports destinaion as the west coast, which meant I saw a broader age range of tourists. More with grey hair, like me!
I'd allowed two days there as whale watching trips are frequently cancelled because of weather/ocean conditions. Saturday (March 14) was not looking great so I booked a trip for Sunday. That meant I had the day on Saturday to wonder. First through the town (i.e., checking out the stores), and then had time to do the three hour hike around the Kaikoura Peninsula. Along the way I stopped at the Fyffe House Museum. The original part of the house was built, using whale bones as the foundation (!), in 1844. It formed part of a whaling station and was occupied by Fyffes until 1868. Whaling was an important industry at that time but not for long, as the number of whales was too soon depleted. This little house was an unexpected find and the documentation/notes throughout very well done.
Fyffe House above and information
panel below
The peninsula hike was fabulous. Great views of the very steep cliffs and the glorious water. At the end of the peninsula there were several seals on the rocks, surrounded by tourists taking photos. The seals were very tolerant!
Views from the peninsula hike
Sunday was a perfect day! I had booked the whale watching trip for 1:15 but went down to check it out in the morning, just to make sure it had not been cancelled. As it turns out there was room for me on the trip that was leaving right then, so off I went. It's quite the operation. The company has several boats and do several trips each day, conditions permitting. Each boat holds close to 50 people if full. It takes almost half an hour to get out to the area where whales are found. We were told they prefer deeper water and apparently the environment around Kaikora is ideal for them. The guide was excellent and as it turned out he was the main attraction. We did see one whale, a sperm whale who seems to be a full time resident, and even has a name: Tiaki. These whales have a huge, and rather squarish head, bigger than any other mammal. Males can reach up to 20 metres in length. Passengers were asked to stay inside while the boat was moving but when it slowed to see the whale everyone poured out with their cameras, hoping for a shot of the tail going up in the air as the whale dove to feed. I must say, I have seen so many incredible things in New Zealand, this somehow seemed a bit comical. Not the whale, all of us. I didn't bother to get a picture. There are better ones than I could ever take online. If I hadn't done the trip I would have wondered what I'd missed, so now I know!
Would I recommend a trip to Kaikoura to someone else? Most certainly as a very pleasant stop along the east coast with a great hiking trail and the opportunity to learn more about the importance of the whaling industry in the early history of New Zealand. But I'm less certain I'd recommend it if someone is counting on seeing lots of whales. It would be important to determine when whales are most likely to be there, and be lucky with the weather conditions.
