30 posts tagged “travel”

 
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Off the train and straight to the tourist info booth (have I mentioned how really organised the tourist biz is in N.Z?) and made the sort of request that I really hate… ‘Can you find me somewhere to stay that is interesting?’
We spent five minutes working out what she thought I meant by ‘interesting.’

A booking was made and I walked along the esplanade past a bay full of crystal clear water, right to the edge of town. The address I was looking for was an old pub perched almost on the right hand tip of the bay.

This was the view from the beer garden…

Pubview_Panorama1

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Simple old world accommodation upstairs, and really decent food in the restaurant down stairs. It had been bought and renovated by a guy who used to work for a huge motel chain but he had decided that he wanted to do something more personal and something he could call his own.
I hate the carbon copy hotel rooms that have spread across the planet following along behind the MacDonald’s plague and this place felt really comfortable.
There was an old fashioned breakfast room where I got to meet other people staying in the hotel. Spent the day tramping around the coast and evening scoffing great food and drink.

These are a few of the photos that I snapped and they are dedicated to all the geologists out there ;-)

Continuing the write up on my trip to New Zealand.

I kept forgetting I was in an other country, this seaside town Kaidoura Especially Reminds me of Oz.
Exit the train station and walk to the right, and the road becomes a wide highway lined with chain hotels and eateries (the worst of Oz.) But hang a left, walk through the town, and down the tree lined esplanade beach road, past tiny holiday batches (N.Z. for cottage,) and lapping surf (the best of Oz.)
Originally established as a whaling town, but now the locals make more cash from whale watching and other touristy type activities such as fishing expeditions and scuba diving.
Got sunburnt a second time. I keep forgetting that N.Z. has less ozone layer then Australia.
There is also a Huge blister on my foot from all the ‘tramping’ (N.Z. for walking around) that I’ve been doing.

Was scoffing a breakfast fry-up sitting outside a café, my first morning there, and a Seagull swooped overhead and shat on my plate. A group of them landed on the edge of the roof and hung around watching me. I got the impression that the cheeky buggers did it on purpose, thus forcing me to finish up and move on, leaving the remains of my meal behind. So I waited around until my plate was cleaned up by the café staff.
Now I know that this might sound a bit mad, believing that I was subject to an organised seagull ploy, but there are stories of crows in Japan using cars stopped at traffic lights as nut crackers, and the Minor birds back in Oz are spookily well organised as they swoop around in packs (I know that I group of birds is usually called a flock but watch Indian Minors for a bit and ‘pack’ is a much more apt description.)
If it's true that dinosaurs evolved into birds, then our feathered friends have had a long time to get their shite together.

Kaidoura is more then seals and whale watching. You will not be surprised to read that there is also a major bird nesting site.
Lots of angry parents flapping about, and I took this last video of some geese that walked past me while I was looking at the seals.

Last of the seal videos and I’m struck by how much seals reminded me of dogs.

This guy (or could be a girl) was basking in the sun. Humans are required to give the seals about ten meters of personal space and all of these videos were shot with a 10x zoom.

While I was staying in Kaikoura, I spent a bit of time down at the seal colonies.
Two seals have a bit of a disagreement.

While I was staying in Kaikoura, I spent a bit of time down at the seal colonies.
This video is of the little guys frolicking in the water

...up to Wellington where I was going to spend Christmas.

I boarded the TranzCoastal train at seven the next morning.
Was impressed to see that a free shuttle bus service was doing the rounds of the tourist accommodations, and picked me up from the hostel.

Found my seat and was chatting with a couple of locals, and we all agreed that (despite the odd shuttle bus) N.Z. isn't a cheap country to travel in (well possibly it is if you travelling with British pounds or Euros.)
I had some friends who decided not to hire a camper van (really popular way for people to travel around this country) this year, cause once the numbers were added up, a visit turned out to be too expensive. The locals I was chatting to wanted to hire a camper and drive around the islands, but they found it was cheaper to ‘jump the ditch’ and visit OZ instead.

This is some footage taken aboard the TranzCoastal train which travels up the East coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
At the rear of the train there is an open carriage and this is where I took this footage.
Overlaid some music just to keep things lively.
The train travels along the coast, through farm land, across rivers, and past mountain ranges.

And some Geology Byotch bait...

Continuing from previous post ...

This week a human star. A teenager who was travelling with us had a lot of fun with the whales.

This video is of the non whale life we saw such as turtles and dolphins including one dead dolphin.

I’ve recently been in email contact with the Oceania guys and they’re having an amazing season of data collection, and general awe and wonderment.

Such a shame that with Humpbacks back on the menu, that there may be a few less jumping about in the bay next year.

After dinner, we're all a bit exhausted from the day’s activities so we sat around in the cabin and listened to a prepared talk by Wally, or we watched a video documentary with a theme applicable to our mission.

I was sleeping out doors in a swag rolled out on the bow of the boat.  The dew was really heavy and the water ran off the oiled canvas of the swag in rivulets when I crawled out of my sleeping bag in the morning.

The whole bay was filled with mist on the last day, and this is some video I took, which features a ‘whitebow’ (a white rainbow.)

Click here to visit the web site of the expedition researchers...