Day 2 Kaikoura

 December 16th

 The sun was out when we woke, tops of the mountains visible instead of shrouded by cloud and surprisingly snow lay in the crevasses. The walk planned yesterday was put off until today but not until after our egg and bacon breakfast.

The sandflies didn't get me, smothered myself in the jungle stuff. Ian about passed out with the fumes, hmm, maybe I should have done it outside and not in! Talking about spraying, the long drop loo was infested with them last night. Opening the door I almost had to beat them off! Gosh, I rushed back to the Toy, grabbed the fly killer, rushed back, opened the door a crack and almost finished the can so enthusiastic was I with the spray. Waited 2 minutes and voilà...dead, every one of them.

We were one of the last to leave this site, only a young couple next to us stayed longer. In fact, they never surfaced until after 9.30 am. Just as we were about to go a grader came past. If only we had been a couple of minutes earlier our journey back along that gravel track would have been easy. As it turned out, a ridge of gravel had been pushed up halfway along the right-hand side of the road. This road is narrow in places and that ridge became a right pain at times. 

We knew it, had to catch him up at some point but lucky for us, it was at a place where he could pull over to let us pass.

 On our criteria was to visit Ohay Point Seal colony. Located about 30-minute drive back towards Blenheim along the coast road, We must have missed them yesterday on our way to Kaikoura. We never made it though because we headed toward the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway first. Plenty to be seen there, and I got to try my waterproof camera in the rock pools. 

Not my best side 😁😆😆

Just straightened up when a seal popped up not 5 meters from where I was standing. Crikey, I know they can be vicious if provoked, and I wasn't going to hang around too long just in case. I was determined to get some photos though.

Kaikoura has changed somewhat since our last visit. Some of the shops were being propped up with scaffolding, those seem to have disappeared and in its place are new shops set back from the main street. Also shown at one of the car parks, twisted rails showing the force of the quake. This from  KiwiRail

A sculpture by internationally-renowned local artist Ben Foster was unveiled at this morning’s event, to provide a lasting marker of the effort put in by the 1500 people involved in the rebuild.

The sculpture features pieces of twisted track salvaged from IronGate, north of Kaikoura, where Mr Foster regularly surfed before the quake.

That car park we tried to get into yesterday, the one that only had spaces for up to 8 motorhomes, well only a few spaces left for the taking, and we took one quick. The alarm will be set for tomorrow, a very early start is planned as the excursion the Whale Watch departs at 7.30 am.

And so to the wildlife,