Kaikora to Christchurch (January 8)

January 09, 2023

Kaikora to Christchurch (January 8)

Julia went for a run in the morning while Rachel got into our (much bigger) bed and fell back asleep. We all went to feed the animals at 8:15. It finally dawned on me while watching the young kids feed the animals that this place was really intended for families with young children, not 21 & 24 year olds. I should have probably gotten a sense of this a bit earlier, based on the very small robes in the children’s rooms in Jim’s cottage and the (comically small) Thomas the Tank Engine bunk bed Rachel slept in.

It wasn’t raining that morning, but the weather made me understand better the meaning of Aotearoa — "the land of the long white cloud." We fed quite a range of different animals — llamas, pigs, deers, sheep, chickens — we didn’t quite get the full story straight, but it seemed to have been a big petting zoo/show farm before the big earthquake hit the area in 2011.

We went back to our rooms to make breakfast. We had all been given farm fresh eggs that we fried up with some toast, tea, and jam. It was the first time I had an included breakfast that you have to cook yourself! But, it was delicious!

Checked out at 10 and the sun was starting to peek through. We decided to go back into town and do a portion of the peninsula walk. We drove back to the parking lot that we had been to before and headed up toward Whaler’s Cove. The night before we had been very confused about what we were supposed to see — but with the sun out, walking along the cliffs the views were just stunning!

We gave Jim a choice to walk with us masked (even though outdoors) or stay away and unmask. He chose unmasked (which was better because we could all unmask). Once we got to Whaler’s Cove, we went down to the shore to walk back along the water. We learned that this was the largest population of red-billed seagulls on the Southern Island. There were so many of them — and quite shockingly, so many seals!

People were getting quite close to the seals (or at least, closer than Julia felt comfortable with). As we were walking back towards the parking lot, we saw a group of people huddled up on the side of the trail. They pointed as we came over, and much to our shock there was a seal right under the bush! Much, much closer than anyone should be. We tried to give a warning to the people we passed on the trail as we went back, but a couple didn’t really pay us any attention — and had quite the jumpscare when the seal lunged at them!

Look closely - there is a seal in there!

We stopped at some tidepools before we reached the car — at this point really laughing at ourselves for not understanding why anyone would recommend this spot the night before! We drove to town, where Jim parked and stayed in the car while the girls and I poked around the shops. We got a great Chai, and some lunch at a food stand called Roti, which we brought to the park to eat with Jim (six feet away).

We made a quick pit stop at the grocery store, and then we headed down to Christchurch!

After we checked into our B&B (we got Jim a room in the motel in the back of it), we walked to the Museum which was closing at 5. Though we only had 45 minutes or so, it was plenty of time for me. Julia and Rachel liked it — they thought it had a lot of interesting descriptions of Māori art. I shouldn’t say so, but I like art that I can understand/digest more easily.

From there we walked to the Botanic Gardens, which are truly amazing. Such a big, open, free, public space. So well done, and just a lovely place to walk.

We headed back into town for dinner after, but came across a really cool art center that used to be an old college called Canterbury College. We walked further into the shopping district and split from Jim, who went off to get some take-away to eat in his motel room (we did feel quite bad for him!). The girls and I sat and had dinner at Original Sin. We then walked to get gelato at Rockabilly — I got a double scoop! It was way too much, but delicious!