Day 14 – Sunday 12 April

We woke up to lovely clear morning & we were hoping for a full day of sunshine.

Havelock Bakery, just across from our motel, was our breakfast kickstarter this morning a bit after 8am then on the road again. We turned off in Havelock town towards the Marlborough Sounds & joined the Queen Charlotte Road, which followed the sounds around, mostly hugging the coastline, towards Picton. We stopped a lot at the various lookouts & turnouts along the road as the views looking across & down the various sounds were wonderful. The rain has left us but it was still a little cloudy & this improved during the day. At one place we stopped we saw a stoat (an introduced pest similar to a weasel or ferret) dash out of the grass, grab a small bird that was standing on the road, then keep on running with it in its mouth. It was quick. At another place we watched some paddlers in sea-kayaks & thought it would be lovely paddling out there with them, then another huge gust of wind came through & we were glad to be on shore. There are lots of houses hugging the hillside & more of them the closer we got to Picton.

At Picton we stopped at a lookout overlooking Queen Charlotte Sound & the harbour of Picton where an Inter-islander ferry was being unloaded & loaded with train wagons & vehicles. It was very interesting watching a train shunt a long line of carriages into the ship & the ship seemed to consume them comfortably, then another line, then another, amazing. As we were watching another ferry steamed down the sound then reversed into a dock & started unloading vehicles, motorbikes, trucks & people. We could have watched all day.

Blenheim, a little further south from Picton is where we refuelled & then started driving through the Marlborough wine region, vineyards everywhere & large wine plants. The hills surrounding were very sparse & barren & dry. It looked very strange as not that far away we were driving through lush green forest. The road eventually reached the coast & the road hugged the coast next to a railway line bordered by a large mountain range on the inland side. A couple of the mountain tops had snow on them. We found out later they are both around 2,600 metres high. At one place we stopped to stretch our legs we were again amazed at the length of the kelp on the rocky beach, some of it is over seven metres long.

Kaikoura was our destination today & we drove through town, out along the seafront, past the wharf area & out to the peninsula. As we were pulling into the car park we noticed seals lazing around sunning themselves in the car park, taking up car spots & even on the board walks where people walked. We walked around & there were seals everywhere, the large ones were mainly lying in the sun on rocks, the young ones were playing together in the shallow water. They did not seem concerned how close you got to them, just raised an eyebrow now & then. There were lots of tourists there taking photos. Next we drove back towards town, checked in to our motel & unpacked then continued back to town for a late lunch, a look at the visitor centre plus a walk around all the shops & Ron had to have a real fruit ice cream. The town centre is not that large. Afterwards we drove up to the lookouts above the town & admired the scenery from a different perspective. The area is certainly very pretty, particularly with the high mountain ranges bordering the coast. From the desk in our motel room we look out at the ocean then I turn my head & see snow on the mountains, I haven’t experienced that at all previously.

Tonight we walked back out to the wharf area from our motel for dinner at the Pier Hotel, specialising in crayfish, for which Kaikoura is renowned for (“Kaikoura” in Maori means “Eat Crayfish”). Obviously we both had crayfish & needless to say it was delicious. We needed the walk back to the motel to walk it all down. All of the stars are shining bright tonight so it looks like the rain has left us for a while, (I hope).