Berge & Meer: 2 times across the Southern Alps to Kaikoura

After a week on the coast, it was time for mountains again: 2 of the 3 mountain passes across the Southern Alps are quite close to each other in the hinterland of Christchurch, and we had some catching up to do with these. The plan was therefore: drive west on Arthur's Pass and return on Lewis Pass. The plan was good, but the weather was not - it had rained on both passes (okay, at Lewis Pass it was more snow than rain). In addition, it was just above 0°C, and it was also windy - as a result, our selected hikes were reduced to just visiting the Devil's Punchball Falls. The weather on the West Coast was sunny (but also cold), while the East Coast also had its share of rain. After these 2 days of driving, we arrived in Kaikoura.

Kaikoura is THE place in New Zealand for whales or dolphins ... a deep-sea trench near the coast ensures that there are whales and dolphins here year-round in larger quantities. In addition, there is a good chance of seeing albatrosses, and of course there are also seals. Last but not least, Kaikoura is also the (self-proclaimed) crayfish capital of the world (crayfish is a type of lobster).

We definitely wanted to go dolphin swimming, and after a surprising sighting of orcas from a helicopter in Antarctica, we also wanted to experience whale watching of sperm whales from the air. Well, of course, there would also be the classic whale watching from a boat ... and maybe we would even try crayfish, even though we have no idea how to eat it.

Right from the start, our flexibility was once again required: our stay was supposed to last 2 days, but the dolphin swimming on day 1 would probably be cancelled (too much wind and waves) - so we rebooked for day 3 and spontaneously added an overnight stay, luckily we had an unplanned day in reserve.

So we were pretty well prepared. On day 1, we first visited a seal colony with a lot of babies who were largely left to themselves while the mothers were out searching for food (and the fathers were generally absent). Here we were almost blown away by a strong wind, so next we went to the provider of whale watching flights and rescheduled our trip for the next day. We used the free afternoon for a longer (4h) coastal hike near Kaikoura, where we saw even more seal babies and mothers in a more sheltered area.

Day 2 started with a nail-biter on the whale watching boat trip - everything had already been cancelled in the last few days due to wind and waves, and even the 7:15 a.m. trip was cancelled. We were booked for 10:00 a.m., and it took place - with a few restrictions that did not concern us (no children under 8 years old, no people with mobility impairments...). We saw some interesting demonstrations of albatrosses and seals competing for a squid, and also some very agile dolphins, but we were unlucky with the whales: one was sighted 3 times, and each time it dived before we got there. At least - we received an 80% refund for that.

The flight whale watching was then surprisingly uneventful for a change, a whale was spotted and circled more than 10 times before diving. It looked really impressive.

Day 3 started with dolphin swimming - again the first outing after days of bad weather cancellations. We got a really good look at the dolphins and are very happy, even though the underwater photo results don't look so great because a) the water was still very stirred up, cloudy, and full of suspended matter, and b) the dolphins suddenly appeared and then disappeared just as quickly.

Afterwards - it was actually already too late - we rushed back to the boat whale watchers and were actually able to join them in the VIP group, despite the tour being sold out, thanks to our knowledge from the previous day. Here we were shown two more whales from the usual perspective, so at the end of the 3 days, all the plans were successfully completed.

Oh yes - the crayfish tasting did not happen. The male M had a crayfish omelette for breakfast once, and since the crayfish parts on it didn't taste like anything, we decided to save the money for the proper crayfish experience.