Kicking it in Kaikoura

                                                           

After a delicious Saturday morning brunch in Christchurch, Jill and Brian (along with baby Louis) dropped us off at the Jucy office so we could pick up our campervan AKA our home sweet home for the next two weeks. We had a beautiful three hour drive to Kaikoura, where we pulled up to our beachside campsite and got temporarily stuck in the sand! With some help from nearby campers, we got out and parked in a more grassy location (still beachside) and saw dolphins in the distance as we ate a late lunch. Then we headed out again to hike around the peninsula.

There were seals everywhere! A mother and baby one are pictured here. We had to be kind of careful as we climbed over rocks and such; you never knew if a seal would be hiding out underneath or just around the corner.

The rock formations along the walk were awesome too-so interesting and unique. Can you spot all the seals?

Zack wanted me to pose for a picture with a seal. When I wouldn't get close enough for his liking, I told him to pose for a shot. He got pretty close and laid down to look like a seal. Well, the one he was close to didn't like this and actually started chasing him. I've never seen Zack get up and move so fast-ha!

Besides seals, there were these black birds with orange eyes/feet/beaks along the walk as well. We found out later that they are called oystercatchers, and they are very protective of their nests. As we walked anywhere in their vicinity, the birds swooped at our heads! So we took a lesson from the Melbourne bikers who have zip ties sticking out of their helmets to avoid swooping and held sticks above our heads when the "angry birds" were nearby!

After we survived our peninsula walk, we went into town and found out that crayfish was the must-try specialty dish. It's not cheap though, so Zack and I split a 1/2 crayfish and shared an order of local blue cod fish and chips. The crayfish tasted like lobster to me; it was a lot of effort to get the "meat" out. I didn't think it was that amazing, but I'm glad we gave it a try. After dinner, we drove back to our beachside campsite and watched Dolphin Tale (to prepare for the next day's activities-you'll see what I mean tomorrow!) on the DVD player in our campervan. We really liked the little seaside town of Kaikoura.

Mornington Peninsula Weekend Part I

The Mornington Peninsula is Southeast of Melbourne, about an hour and a half away. We spent the weekend camping there with friends (Adam/Emily, Nigel/Kristy, Todd/Alena), and we had a great time. For $30 a night, you can reserve a campsite on the foreshore, which means that this was our awesome view when we set up camp on Friday night.

After setting up camp, we brought some drinks and music down to the beach (a one minute walk from our tent!) and watched the sun go down.

On Saturday morning, we headed to Portsea Surf Beach on the ocean side of the peninsula (we were camping on the bay side). We had a nice hot day, so we practiced our surfing and hung out on the sand.

We also had some beach games going, such as cricket. Todd is showing off his baseball skills here (six of the eight of us on this trip were Americans!).

The whole reason I originally organized this trip was because I had bought a Groupon for a boat ride that lets you swim with seals and dolphins. So on Saturday afternoon, Zack and I headed to Sorrento Pier to catch our boat. We first stopped at a snorkeling spot where you can sometimes see leafy sea dragons, but we couldn't find any. I did find this big carp at the bottom though.

There were some other fish, like these black and white ones (I don't know what type they are), but overall, the water was pretty cloudy and didn't have much.

Next, we headed out in search of the dolphins. I was excited about this part of the trip, because I don't think I've ever actually seen a dolphin (maybe one at a distance once-I forget).

They couldn't find the dolphins, so they took us to view these birds (called gannets) in the Pope's Eye area. They were pretty, but they weren't dolphins!

The fuzzy one in the middle is a baby.

Then we boated around some more, looking for the dolphins. They still couldn't find them, so we went to go check out the seals. Less than five minutes after I had gotten in the water, they decided the waves were too choppy and called everyone back to the boat. I got close to this structure, but only for a minute or two. We never did find the dolphins, so they gave us a voucher for 50% off our next visit. Major bummer. The whole boat trip was kind of a bust, and I wish we had just stayed at the beach with our friends!

On Saturday night, we all headed to the Dromana Drive-in Cinema to see Pitch Perfect. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset, some drinks, and a few ice cream treats while waiting for the show to start. Wrapped in a sleeping bag while sitting in a camp chair and drinking a cider was the perfect way to watch this cheesy (yet funny and cute) movie.

So that was the start of our weekend in the Mornington Peninsula. My next post will be about our Sunday activities.

Emily, Alena, Kristy, and me (the gals on the trip). I think our husbands were busy eating ice cream (at least mine was!)