Thar she blows

Blog Post #7

Woke up to a gorgeous sunrise over the ocean, took our leisurely time to get ready, and headed into town to get coffee.  They do have amazing coffee in this country, although maybe it is because they use whole milk and real sugar everywhere and I'm just not used to that.  They have something here called "trim" milk, which I think is skim, but I've called it skim, slim and I think I'm finally getting the hang of trim. 

Our whale watching check in time was 10am, so we meandered over there to check in.  The sign on the board said "wind at 15 knots, increasing to 40 knots" and "sea sickness warning".  I have no idea how fast a knot is, but I am well aware of what sea sickness is.  Damon said that 40 knots is pretty big wind.  Anyhoo, we got our safety briefing, swallowed our dramamine, put on our motion sickness wristbands (no one has ever accused me of being unprepared) and headed to the boat. 

There are sperm whales that live in the area most of the year, so we had about a 95% chance of seeing at least one.  We got out to the  area where another boat had just located one - they only rise to the surface for about 5-10 minutes every hour and we got really lucky that the other boat out there had been tracking the sonic beeps the whales make indicating when they are close by.  Sperm whales are big - it floated on the surface for a few minutes breathing and blowing out through the blow hole - we got a lot of pictures.  Still so far so good on the seasickness front, although other people were starting to drop like flies.  They do outfit the boat with about 20 bags per seat pocket.  Not to be gross, but it took all of my concentration to not look, listen or breathe through my nose, because we all know about that chain reaction.

We cruised around for a while and actually found a second whale that surfaced - so we got lucky and saw two.  It was a rough 40 minute ride at full speed over huge swells to get us back.  As Damon said, look at that, we got a whale watching tour and a roller coaster ride as an added bonus!`  I'm pleased to say that both of us made it back to shore without hurling.  We went back to the Duke, made some lunch and crashed hard for about an hour - again - nice thing about travelling with your house - you can eat and sleep pretty much anywhere, anytime!

Post nap, we went on a short hike on the Peninsula Walkway, which is one of Kaikoura's more popular walks - you can take the high bluff route or walk along the water.  At our start point, there were more fur seals that we could get close to.  We chose the bluff.  When we were about 1/3 of the way out, we saw a strange cloud formation rolling in - it was like a tube of clouds - we were happy it was moving in so fast b/c it was hot out and we wanted some shade.  The cloud passed over us, as did the cold front and the 40 knot winds following behind the clouds.  It was like a switch flipped - the winds were unbelievable (we have pix and video) - yet we kept walking on the trail to our destination; then we turned around and came back.  I have to say again, 40 knots is like 50 mph give or take, this wind was brutal and unrelenting.  Once I got over my fear of being blown off the bluff, I wasn't freaking out and sort of enjoyed the hike. 

We went to try to find a highly recommended "Crayfish" joint we had passed on the way in, but apparently it was either blown away or they closed up early b/c of the weather.  Crayfish is the specialty in Kaikoura - we think Crayfish is actually lobster since the pictures look like lobster and when we tried another place, prices were $110 per Cray.  So, we had spaghetti in Duke.

Weather started to get bad again, so we headed to a camp ground, made dinner, did a load of laundry, and crashed out by 9pm.  Weather took a turn for the worse - we had rain (great for them, sucks for us) and the temps dropped quite a bit.  Luckily, Duke is amazingly comfortable to sleep in!

Tomorrow, drive and hike day as we head back South toward Christchurch and then across the South Island on Arthur's Pass to the West side - hope to get some good hikes in weather permitting.