Half day to spare before our bus at 4pm: whale watching or fishing? I just could not pay $170 pp to see tails so we decided to go for a two hour fishing trip ($80 pp) with Kaikoura Fishing Tour. We weren't prepared for the rough sea and spent more time throwing up than fishing lol. Oh well at least we caught something lah!

Tomo getting the boat ready just for the two of us


First stop was to retrieve Tomo's crayfish pot from the sea


I was expecting the lobsters to scurry and fidget like mad but they were surprisingly calm.


I was feeling too seasick to even stand up properly but I did force myself to pick one up eventually.


Undersized or pregnant ones are returned to the water to protect the sustainability of crayfish. Tomo tossed them back into the sea like throwing a rock.


Putting a new bait back into the pot


By this time we were so sick we even unabashedly asked if we could turn back and get a partial refund of course the answer was no and so we pressed on. As we slowly got the hang of it, we seemed to be less bothered by the seasickness. More fishes ate my bait than I could catch them lol. Naturally we were excited when he reeled in the first catch of the day.


虎视眈眈


This could well be the first and last time we'll ever go fishing again so we gathered our last bits of strength for this photo even though we were feeling like dead fish inside.


Tomo filleted the fish we caught and flicked the remains to the waiting albatrosses.


Albatross fight


Our total catch was just six sea perches and three crayfish courtesy of Tomo. So glad we were finally back on shore.


There was still plenty of time left so we went up the Dempsey's Track. We could see the whale watching boats from atop and stared at the sea for any suspicious movements of orcas haha.


Mist over farm land


Panoramic view of Kaikoura Seaward Range


好好拍一张啦


Freedom that we wish will never end