Kaikoura

It’s almost unreal to think that we were in Kaikoura the day before the 7.8 earthquake of November 14, but it’s true. Everything was normal; we spent most of the day at church, then went across the street and over the bridge over Lyell Creek, then sat on the rocky beach for awhile. The boys had fun stacking rocks; Mr. Intellectual built several of these structures and then demolished them. Apparently, the seafloor rose about 2 meters here. They say that rocks are visible now that had never been seen before, and high tide now looks like low tide before! It will sure be interesting to see it when we can get back up there, but that will be a long time. The most optimistic estimate I’ve seen for opening the highway is six months from now.

We enjoyed watching birds—this gull and the shags who were hanging out in the creek.

We were driving to Kaikoura for church Sunday morning when suddenly one of the boys exclaimed, “There’s a whale!” Sure enough, just a few hundred meters offshore was a whale, apparently feeding on the surface in the middle of a small pod of dolphins! There was a fishing boat close by; apparently there was a large school of fish there. Of course, we stopped to watch–you don’t see a whale very often. What a special experience!

Our trip to church Sunday was a little different from usual. Every year, this weekend, there is a classic car show in Kaikoura on Saturday, and the cars go back south on Sunday morning. There were around 600 cars at the show, we heard, and the boys counted 270 or so passing us! That sure adds interest to a one-hour trip we make nearly every week.

The other thing that made the trip unusual was snow. We drove through falling snow for about 10 minutes, and there was some slush on the road. That is the worst road conditions we’ve driven in in this country. It was sure pretty! This was the first and probably last snow for us this winter.

We especially noticed the wattle trees bending down with the weight of snow. On the way home in the afternoon, the snow was gone, but the wattle trees were still bowed down and a lot of limbs were broken off.

On our way home, as we crossed a bridge just as the highway reached the sea, I looked at the river mouth and noticed a flock of spoonbills! We pulled off and Gayle and Mr. Intellectual went over to get a picture. The rest of us preferred to stay in the warm dry van.

The last Sunday my sister-in-law was here, three weeks ago already, we took her to Kaikoura for church. After church, we took her out to the Peninsula, of course. It was a cold, windy day, but beautiful all the same. I stayed in the van with little ones who didn’t need to get cold, but most of the family climbed the Peninsula.

I have never seen so many seals at the Peninsula! They must have been wanting to stay out of the cold water.

While I waited, I watched this film crew. I have no idea what the man was talking about, but they were obviously filming him discussing something! They had a reflector to bounce light onto him, and a shade they held over him at times to get the light right—until it blew away into the water and they had to scramble down to get it.

We drove around to South Bay, on the other side of the Peninsula, and while there I noticed this incredible cloud formation. It was obviously snowing in the mountains!

I enjoyed seeing these cows on such a steep hill. One had just raced downhill.