I've always loved going to the beach. Summers in York Beach with my family and Andrea are some of my happiest memories. I love the ocean but I didn't realize how being by it can drastically affect my mood and happiness. Kaikora is a small peninsula town on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island (2013 population per Wikipedia estimated 1,971). According to Lonely Planet it's on the main migratory path for 14 different species of whales and dolphins, an underwater highway where you can see incredible wildlife year round. When we entered Kaikora and I saw the sunshine glistening on the surprisingly aqua sea, my mood shifted and I couldn't stop beaming. I was so excited to see the colors of the water and immediately knew that two nights in this spectacular place wasn't going to be enough. It's the first time while in New Zealand where I've had that thought and was anxious of the feeling I'd have when it was time to leave and I wasn't ready. As Jake drove and I gazed at the water, I started to see big splashes off in the distance. At first I thought it was whales but later learned that it was dolphins. Within five minutes of driving along the water I must have seen at least a dozen splashes. Later in the day the splashes were close enough that I could see the dolphin doing some serious acrobatics. Unfortunately the sunshine didn't last. Within two hours of our arrival the sun was gone, the clouds were in and rain was pending. My feeling of elation was diminished. The forecast wasn't good. We were able to go on the "Seal Swim" that we had been looking forward to for months but were refunded half of the fare because the seals didn't cooperate with our plans. The seal swim wasn't as bad as I made it out to be. Yes we were refunded, but it was still an enjoyable experience. After suiting up in the thickest wetsuit I've ever worn, which included a hood we set out on a tiny craft with two young girls from Germany, our skipper and his first mate. While we saw some seals on rocks, we had a hard time finding any in the water. This may have been because the typically sunny weather had turned to overcast and cool....the seals had no need to cool off. We did find some seals in the water, but they weren't too interested in playing with us. I think I had the best view of our group and was able to see them swim underwater, but we weren't able to get too close, hence the refund. We did see a ginormous stingray about four feet in diameter. It was so close I could have touched it and the sight of it was both incredible and terrifying all at the same time. Isn't that what killed Steve Irwin?
After that, it poured all night and made getting up to go to the bathroom super fun for me. We woke up to the same weather and our whale watching trip was canceled. We stayed positive and got some "work" done (a.k.a. blog writing and trip planning) while waiting to see if our afternoon skin diving trip would also be canceled. It was. We were supposed to go skin diving for "crayfish" and paua which are the delicacies of Kaikora. What they call crayfish are actually rock lobster, very similar to a New England lobster, but with no claws, and paua are what we would call abalone. I was hoping to also find scallops that we would then cook at our private BBQ on the beach. We attempted to reschedule but the water visibility continued to be subpar. We had been looking forward to these Kaikora-only based activities for many months and my mood was very low as we drove out of town. After being on the road for only about twenty minutes, my mood picked up slightly when we stopped to view the Point Kean Seal Colony. It's an area off the side of the main road where literally hundreds of NZ fur seals are lazing around the rocks. Many of them were pups who were absolutely adorable to watch as they played with one another on the rocks and in the tiny pools of water that had been left behind when the tide went out. At least we got to see that.
~ Jesslyn