New Zealand - Kaikoura

We travelled further north from Christchurch towards Kaikoura, along a dramatic coastline.  This is Goose Bay, just south of Kaikoura

It was so nice here we decided to come back to camp after Kaikoura

This is St Paul's on the hill, Kaikoura.  The only St Paul in Kaikoura, whilst we were there..

We arrived at the campsite and some locals came to say hello

The views from the campsite weren't bad either, looking towards the Kaikoura Range

The Kaikoura Range is actually part of the Southern Alps and one of the few places that mountains meet the sea

Kaikoura is actually a peninsular and its named literally means, 'Meal of Crayfish'

Mount Fyffe is to the right of my head and looked like a good trek, or 'tramp' as the kiwis say.  It was named after the first family to settle in Kaikoura

You can see whales from here at times, and Kaikoura originally was a whaling settlement

'...the hiiills are aliiiive.....with the sound of musiiiiiic....'

The bay looking south is just as impressive

Again we saw birds we'd not seen anywhere else

Our 'hotel' for the duration of the New Zealand part of our travelling is centre

We camped at a free Department of Conservation site on one of the nights

Where the water came courtesy of gravity, rather than by tap

Mount Fyffe seemed like a good idea from sealevel

You start at 200m and go up to 1602m.  It's very tiring and steep and is just under 10km

The time recommended to leave is 8 hours, but we did it in 5 hours.  And really felt it the day afterwards, ouch!

Not sure what the wierd thing is, but that's weather equipement behind it.....

We took a picnic and had the peak to ourselves...

Mount Snowflake can be seen central

I've rarely seen a sight that could match it

Luckily the snow was only in some parts of our 'tramp', cos it was hard work getting up it on the steep bits

Kaikoura looks a lot smaller from up here

But it's there I promise

Was so worth the effort and the weather was with us all the way, was quite warm really..

Just contemplating life...

Lucky we brought the gorilla pod, cos no one else was there to take this picture.

The way down was a tad easier

And we know where to come for the tree next month

There's also seals to be seen.  The males were massive and can be aggressive if you get too close, but tres cute.  I'm getting a suspicious stare as I take this photo

In Goose Bay the view from our 'hotel' was pretty good too

With the locals out for a swim

And giving more suspicious looks