We'd heard repeatedly that Kaikoura is THE place for spotting whales in NZ. As we finalized our plans for the final days of our Summer roadtrip, we agreed Kaikoura should feature on our final leg South on the South Island.
Our ferry arrived into Picton around 12:30pm. It felt great to be back on the South Island. Paige especially was glad to be back on dry, solid ground. There were strong swells so the ferry was rockin' big-time. Poor thing got sick a few times, even as we took shelter as low down in the boat as we could.
Eat Crayfish
The drive from Picton to Kaikoura was only about 2 hours; easy peasy. On the way I did a few online searches of the "must-do" things in/around Kaikoura. Besides the obvious whale watching, a few hiking trails and seal colonies popped to the top. Eating crayfish was another thing mentioned frequently. Unbeknownst to us, in Maori "kai" means food and "koura" means crayfish; Kaikoura literally means "eat crayfish"! How could we pass on that experience?!
Nins Bin
The highway is dotted with several seafood shanties that sell crayfish and the day's seafood catch. We stopped at one called Nins Bin. They catch crayfish fresh daily. The friendly, quirky man working opened a chilly bin full of crayfish, marked by Sharpie with a price, mostly in the $65-90 range. Darn these guys are expensive! But we were already there and keen to try, so we picked out a $70 one and some chips.
The standard way to serve the crayfish (known as spiny rock lobster in the US) in NZ is cold with a squeeze of lemon. They also offered an alternative of warm with garlic butter. We ordered ours warm with garlic butter (sounds better, right?). The worker promptly told us we were making a big mistake; that we'd regret not going with the cold lemon version. We were conflicted. On a whim I asked if he could do half/half so we could taste test them both. He obliged and we promised to report back on our preference.
Food in hand we found a picnic bench looking out onto the (extremely rough, angry) ocean and picked out the crayfish meat. First we tried the cold/lemon version. Absolutely delicious!! Then we tried the warm garlic butter one. Eh. Unimpressed. Hands down the cold/lemon version was the winner! We were unanimous in preferring that one. The guy was right! And we had no qualms about confessing that we were wrong and he was right. The man knows his crayfish!
Back in the car we reflected on how expensive the crayfish was! There's very little meat, and at $70 a pop, we were paying about $8-9 per bite, two bonfaide bites each. Ha! We all agreed it was totally worth it for the whole experience of the unique, Kiwi-bliss setting, food, and customer service. Totally worth the pitstop, but you probably won't find us ordering crayfish again soon :)
Fyffe House
When we got to Kaikoura we immediately went to a place called Fyffe House. It's a little pink cottage beside the sea, known for being Kaikoura’s oldest surviving building & a former whaling station established in 1842. The museum was small but well done. They had a kids scavenger hunt, so the girls were happy as clams. It was a nice way to get an induction to the area and its whaling history. Also interesting to see/hold whale bones from ages ago. Really gave the girls (and us) perspective on the massive size of the animal.
Spotting Seals
We then continued on further down the seaside road to see if we could spot some seals. We got a bit unlucky and only saw one. But we did enjoy exploring the rocks and watching Sadie unleash some pretty awesome dance moves with the crashing waves behind her :)
Dinner with a View
For our single night in Kaikoura we opted for basic accommodation, but the beach vibe was great and the location stellar - directly across the street from the water! Even more awesome in the girls' minds were the hula hoops they played with nonstop.
Doug popped over to the grocery for a few dinner staples while the girls & I read late afternoon. Hard to compete with our dinner view. As the sun set we all walked across the street to explore the beach and rocky shoreline. Doug & Sadie stayed out quite a bit longer. Sadie absolutely loves climbing and exploring; two of her very favorite things. Meanwhile Paige and I had fun chit chatting and making shadows on the bedroom wall.
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