South Island – Blenheim to Kaikoura

No signs necessary to take off your dirty boots before entering…..here in the South Island they do it as a matter of courtesy. Guys walking around shops in their thick woollen work socks, most excellent behaviour……take a note Naki farmers!

Rosie and The Operator were at the AA early in the morning two mins after it opening…The Operator was wanting to buy roadside breakdown cover for the camper, ‘just in case’ seeing as we were going to be a long way from home over the holiday period and it is an old camper with plenty of miles on the clock…not wanting to jinx ourselves.  Susie was lovely and we were hooked up in a flash….the cover had a stand down period of 24 hours.  Talk about jinx.  We had a wander around Blenheim as well, a big town with sprawling shopping streets and friendly people looking forward to the holidays!

Our first tourist stop in Blenheim was to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Museum, everyone in town recommended we go there and the brochures said ‘it was the best museum in the world!’  Planes and the likes are not really Rosies thing….but it was talked up so we went anyway.  Out by the Blenheim airport is the huge hanger that houses the museum.   The museum evolved as a dream by local enthusiasts, Sir Peter Jackson was on board right at the beginning as his own personal collection of planes and memorabilia was becoming too big.  With the help of Wingnut films and Weta workshop the displays in the hanger are breathtaking.

The museum catalogues the progress and development of planes and aviation history during The Great War, 1914 – 18.  It seems like such a small window but to put it into context the Wright Brothers first flew in 1903 and the first crossing of the English Channel was in 1909.  Five years later the war broke out and flying was still a  novelty!  This was the first war where aircraft had been used to any extent and this was the fastest era of development from around the world!  Bare in mind all of these pictures are dioramas of life sized genuine real aircraft!  It is an amazing museum!  There are huge dioramas of different events during the war that involved planes, the stories are short and well told and have all the specs and ‘stuff’ for any aviation buff. The amount of WWI flying memorabilia on display is incredible, war posters, flying trophies, aviation clocks, original paintings depicting planes at war…..you wonder how Sir Peter has got hold of this amazing stuff….it must be worth a fortune!

 Right is a scene depicting the shooting down of the infamous Red Baron and how the allies stripped his plane of markings for souvenirs and even stole his famous furry flying boots off his dead body. Peter Jackson actually owns and has on display the original cross insignia you can see on the plane….it was cut off and went god knows where and he has bought it! This museum IS definitely worth a visit, Rosie and The Operator wandered around for an hour but you  could have spent longer there!

The little cob cottage is just out of Blenheim, it was built during the whaling period of the 1840s and has thick walls made out of mud and tussock. Modelled on the immigrants own style of housing it kept the house warm during winter and cool in the summer. As cute as a button.

 Leaving Blenheim and on the road towards Kaikoura we are  travelling inland and are not yet turning towards the coast, we are getting closer and closer to the ranges that surround this bountiful area. 

 The road starts to bend and climb up and over the brown hills, the wind is blustery yet has a warm feel to it, there is no humidity in the air and it is nice and dry.  The brown hillsides ripple in the light as the wind blows the dried grasses to and fro.

Then we broke through the hills and in front of us the ranges and grassy pasture started to open up, the view was stunning, for 180 degrees in front were what appeared to be impenetrable mountainous ranges…..

…then we turned another corner and we were on the coast where we followed the shoreline right into Kaikoura. On our shoulder all the way were the train tracks that twisted and turned alongside the waterfront. The wind was whipping the surface of the Pacific Ocean and the sun made it a perfect turquoise, the traffic on the road was light and the country was all ours.  Oh, and theirs, the seals along the rockier parts of the coast were amazing, The Operator could not believe how many there were….basking in the sun, hunting for lunch in the water and playing in the enormous banks of thick brown kelp.

 If we were catching the train to Christchurch we would be on the The Coastal Pacific, it has beautiful huge windowed  glass topped viewing carriages.  They go through 22 tunnels on this journey and one of the tunnels on the left is not for them…they have their own tunnel, the dark looking one to the right of the road.  Here in the South Island, why dig one road tunnel when you can dig two! One tunnel for each traffic stream, one up, one back.  They must be tough buggers on this coast to go to all that effort tunnelling through rock…twice.

 It was past lunchtime and The Operator was getting hungry, he was holding out for a snack from one of the famous seaside seafood shacks.  The first one up was Nins Bins, it is an iconic caravan that has been there since the 70s….what we didnt know was that it only sold crayfish….the little spiny pot o gold crustaceans.

The sign really should have given it away, but hey we were hungry.  We went to the wee caravan and like the sign says, in a bin were cooked crays all lined up with a price on their little orange backs.  A medium crayfish was $117 and they had little ones for about $45….well, Mr Nin (or whomever) was very nice, he told us all about how he had just had this batch delivered fresh from the ocean about an hour ago and how they were still warm from cooking in the copper…..The Operator was shuffling his feet toward the door and Rosie was racking her brain how to politely say ‘thanks but but no thanks’.

But, instead out of her mouth comes…’ so will one of the $117 ones be enough for 4 people for lunch with abit of bread and butter?’  Oh yes, I will heat them up abit more for you and for an extra $8 the garlic Butter is delicious’.  Rosie turned to The Operator and said ‘ well, seeing as there are four of us I think we had better check with the others and see if they want to go bigger and get some cash from them’.  The Operator nods quizzically, Rosie smiles at Mr Nin and says,’we will be right back in a minuet’.  We turned around, walked out of the caravan, walked briskly across the car park, hopped in the camper and wheel spun dust onto the legitimate four enjoying their lunch….wonder what size they ordered.

Rosie and The Operator were lucky Kaikoura was only a few kilometres down the road.  Driving into it what a beautiful town!  It is a small town but has the feel of a place doing well, and it is.  Nga Tahu are one of the smallest Maori tribes in NZ but have the biggest land area…..hence they received one of the biggest government payouts under the Treaty of Waitangi dispute settlements.  And, they are one of the only tribes in NZ where they have made it work for them and have prospered.  It is good to see because it has a knock on effect in the whole town.  Their secret?  Primarily Whale Watching Boat Tours.  A deep ocean trench lies off the coast of Kaikoura which is a natural feeding ground for sperm whales and humpbacks…..hop on a boat and go and see their tails, backs and fins rise.  Rosie and the Operator passed on that, even though it was a lovely day and the lady at the Information Centre said they were also seeing albatross close inshore too and dolphins today.

The town is wide street south island, funky shops and new cafe bars, it has a good vibe to it and is really nice, there were buses and people everywhere.  Long may this town prosper!  Driving through it to get to our lunch destination there is still a mix of old Bach’s intermingled with new modern homes and it still feels down to earth.

This was the destination, The Kaikoura Seafood BBQ – a conglomeration of coffee, ice cream and BBQ caravans serving seafood sandwiches or seafood and salads – nice, simple, quick.  Rosie had a garlic scallop sand which for $9 and The Operator had a Paua Fritter the size of a dinner plate on bread with salad for $7, both freshly cooked before your eyes on the hot grill, we sat on the roadside tables and wolfed them down.

We drove down the end of the peninsula to Point Kean, there is alot of walking tracks there and a lovely view of the curve of the bay.  Rosie was walking past a garden and heard some heavy breathing, a seal had rolled onto its back and was sunbathing, it was pretty camouflaged in the undergrowth, it was sound asleep and snoring!  Rosie crept up to a couple of metres of it, the seal then heard the beep of my camera focus and opened one eye…….

The Operator was telling Rosie to back away as the seal opened one eye to see what was going on, it then grunted, stretched and clapped its flippers and went back into comatose mode….The Operator was poised for flight saying they can move quicker than dear Rosie….The Operator had my back though.  We drove out of Kaikoura after a nice walk around and headed down the highway for Goose Bay…this is the mother camp for a few freedom camping spots within coowee of the main base.  The freedom spots are all on the waters edge and have no power only a lovely clean flush toilet and running water.  We paid $22 for the night and could use any of the facilities at Goose Bay camp only about 400 metres away.

What a lovely spot it was, we camped up at about 3.30, there was not a breath of wind, it was about 28c and the sea was calm and welcoming.  There was a rocky shoreline, not too many places for swimming if one was so inclined.  All Rosie wanted to do was bask in the sun and read her book.  The Operator was waiting for low tide because he was looking for dinner, and hoping for a fresh catch of Paua.

After a false start The Operator waited for the tide to go out abit more and there they were, little black beauties.  The legal size down here is 125mm so you know they are a decent size.  They were so beautiful and tender!  Well done Operator!  We sat swatting bugs and watched the sun go down under the watchful eyes of a flock of nasty seagulls who swooped down on Rosie and tried to pinch a biscuit out of her hand.  Rosie 1 Seagulls 0.  Tomorrow we are off to Christchurch to visit the city, family and then move onto Akaroa.  Rosie and The Operator  are looking forward to a new day as the old one sets.