I’ve just come back from a few days in Kaikoura in New Zealand. It’s a small town that has become a required stop on the tourist trail, mainly because of the whale watching.

I have passed through the town a handful of times but never really stopped there. Two days was a good chance to explore the town and appreciate the beauty.

With hills behind the town, everything is oriented towards the sea, as are most of the activities.

I went out on the whale watching boat to try and find whales. It was more of an adventure than I expected since the crew don’t actually know where the whales are and they need to find them using a hydrophone. Since the whales spend 5-10 minutes on the surface every hour it’s often a bit of a lottery. The whale hunt was a bit of an anticlimax although I enjoyed the boat trip because of the variety of bird-life around, mostly albatrosses and petrel. It’s always the unexpected that delights.

My other enjoyable experience there was a walk around the peninsula. It took about four hours and on a hot day was a little longer than I would’ve liked but it was good fun. Lots of nice views over the the ocean and lots of wildlife to look at.

A great few days!