25/04/2018 - New Challenges

After the night in "Cheviot", we returned to "Gore Bay". Here we started a hike that, hopefully, would lead us to "Cathedral Gully" and its clay pinnacles. At the beginning, the trail ran relatively harmlessly along a small stream. But soon we climbed the first meters of elevation on a muddy path and ended up in a forest area. Various bird songs accompanied us while hiking. We were presented with a variety of bird songs. We are now even able to roughly assign them to the birds from New Zealand. Especially the "Tui" were squawking loudly and uniquely. Their call is very different from others, it sounds more mechanical and from another planet.
After about 40 minutes of walking through the forest, we slowly approached a lookout point - a picnic bench stood on the green mountaintop. From here we had a beautiful view of Gore Bay and the expansive sea. But the expected clay pinnacles were nowhere to be seen. We walked a little further and explored the surroundings, but the view of the yellow pinnacles remained hidden from us. All hedges and bushes blocked our view and we felt that we probably couldn't see the gorge from here.
A little disappointed, we left the viewpoint and started heading back. Meanwhile, the many birds accompanied us and improved our mood. Exercise has never hurt and the weather was too good to be disappointed.
Back in the picturesque Gore Bay, we had our lunch snack on the beach. Afterwards, we continued our journey towards "Kaikoura". State Highway 1, around Kaikoura, was hit by severe earthquakes and landslides in 2016. Construction workers have been working on the road for a long time to release it without any concerns. But the area is still dotted with construction sites. We were forced to wait nearly ten minutes in front of various traffic lights because some sections of the road were only single lane. The drive was long, and the kilometers just wouldn't decrease.
Towards the afternoon, the end was finally in sight. We reached "Goose Bay" and went to the campground office. There we paid $26/15€ for the coming night and then continued driving. Because the entire campground stretches along the entire coast. Our area was located at "Paia Point". This section had only one flush toilet and one sink. In return, it was beautiful and right by the sea.
We parked the car to explore the area. We were amazed when a female seal was napping on a rock just ten meters away from us. Our car was in the middle of a seal colony! The situation was too wild for us and the smell was rather unpleasant, so we parked the car 100 meters further on a meadow. Even from here, we had a perfect view of the coast. Only a thin stone beach separated us from the endless sea. We were simply happy. Sometimes it doesn't take much. - The wide view of the sea in front of us, the wild nature around us, and camping in freedom was our definition of happiness.
After initial technical difficulties, we lit the camping stove and started cooking. Dinner should be simple and delicious: rice pudding with cherries and cinnamon. Without a scale, but with strong winds and limited heat control, cooking for the first time on a mobile camping stove was a bit difficult. But the result was warm and tasty. However, we had to sit in the car to eat because there were so many mosquitoes. We enjoyed our dinner from the bed and watched the seals swimming and the sunset through the rear window.
The night was filled with incredible calmness. The campground is located between damaged sections of SH1 - the road sections are closed overnight due to construction sites. Only a rattling freight train briefly startled us. But as it disappeared into the darkness, there was nothing left but the gentle sound of the sea.

Today's day began punctually with the sunrise. Since Kaikoura is located on the east coast, the sun rose over the sea. It was so beautiful to feel the first rays of sunshine on our faces. After cleaning the bed and freeing our seats with the best mood, we set up our camping chairs outside. For breakfast, we had porridge with banana, peanut, and raisins. For entertainment, we watched "Animals at Sea". We noticed an uneven wave movement on the horizon. Shortly afterwards, a small airplane circled over the mentioned spot. After another 20 minutes, there were three boats at the position. We zoomed in with the big camera and saw that dolphins were swimming there. After this nice surprise, which we didn't have much of, we were impressed again by nature. About 1,000 cormorants suddenly swept over the water surface. They flew past us in several large groups. There seemed to be no end in sight, the black birds kept floating southward.
After this slightly different form of entertainment, we tried to wash our dishes as well as we could with cold water. Since this didn't really work and our hands were getting colder, we packed up most of the things and postponed the dishwashing to later.
Before finally leaving the campground, we took another walk along the coastline to look for seashells. Besides various smaller specimens, we found intact, luminous "Paua Shells".
With everything packed and stowed away, we got back on the road towards Kaikoura. On-site, we reflected on the last night. Completely unprepared, we dared to try out this new type of campground. Of course, we faced some challenges that we hadn't thought about before: "Does the camping stove work, which we haven't needed before? What should I do with leftovers? Where do I collect the trash? ..." - We found answers to all the questions and will probably visit more of such puristic campgrounds in the future. But for today, we were glad to have found a normal kitchen with warm water.