mrsjono

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

Spent two nights in Kaikoura before moving on to Christchurch. The Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway is a great way to watch the abundance of marine life and take in the coastal views. I don't remember the exact route we took but I know we must have walked a long way because we passed the Fyffe House towards the end. The walkway is well sign-posted and there are informative signboards at key locations.

Parts of the walkway cross private land. We hit a very muddy stretch at the beginning but soon forgot about our wet feet.


牛西兰


Limestone Bay


Black-billed gulls are found only in NZ and are the most threatened gull species in the world.


Fishing in a canoe - one of the three pouwhenua (wooden post) at South Bay


The rainbow we saw earlier appeared again at the intersection of Scarborough St and South Bay track


It was still visible in the far distance when we stopped for a bite at South Bay viewpoint


Free as a bird~


No idea how did we veer off the main track we went ahead anyway and it led us to a colony of wild seals.


Aper?


Seals spend most of their time resting on the rocky shores in the winter.


They weren't moving or making noise it was best to keep a distance and leave them alone.


Army of seals


We had enough of seals for the day and decided it was time to head back but didn't know how. There were no signs so we just continued walking until we saw this track up a hill.


This was way more difficult than I thought. It was a very sharp ascent and turned out to be a spiderman climb on all fours.


I was struggling because my beanie kept slipping over my eyes, I couldn't see what's ahead and couldn't look down either. I couldn't hold my beanie in my hand because my hands were grabbing the grass at the sides. Ended up stuffing the beanie in my coat even though I was already so hot and sweating inside. I was a clumsy spiderman in the wrong attire!


It was only after I made it to the top that I realised how freaking long and steep the cliff was. (Jaw drop)


Kaikoura means eat crayfish in Maori. We were quite looking forward to this especially after walking 5 hours. It was quite expensive so we shared a half lobster meal that comes with bread, rice, fish fillet and salad.


In Kaikoura, hostels are named after marine life. There's Dolphin Lodge, Fish Tank, Bad Jelly, Lazy Shag (a bird). We chose Albatross because it was the highest rated BBH hostel in Kaikoura at that time. They had many woofers even during winter but they don’t seem to change bedsheets…?

To celebrate the end of the apple season, Inwood treated the crew to a farewell lunch at Chokdee (means good luck in Thai). This was the same place where we had our first meal in Motueka, sharing a stingy portion of tom yum soup. If not for this treat, we would not patronise again because the portion size was rather small even for one person. Oh well not complaining further considering we didn't have enough food at the previous end of season party in Martinborough. The crew was already closely bonded when we joined; it was more difficult for them to say goodbye to each other. We managed to stay till the end for a photo with the owners as we were really grateful they gave us a job at such short notice. I was happy that the end of this job completes three months of horticulture work (yay no more) and the next thing to do was to head to the nearest immigration branch to apply for a visa extension. But wait we can't leave Motueka as yet cos our landlord refused to pro-rate the weekly rent so we were stuck with her for another three nights. Took off early in the morning without saying a word. Good riddance!!

On our 104th day in New Zealand, we jumped off a plane 13,000ft from the sky. There were four pairs tandem diving and I was the first to go. At 5,000ft or something, a female staff opened the door and dropped out of the plane without any hesitation. My hands were getting sweaty. Chris opened the door and I swung my legs out as instructed. I closed my eyes and we dropped. I screamed till I couldn't breathe. My stomach felt abit sick. He tapped me to stretch out my hands but I was still scared and continued to hold onto the harness with one hand. Parachute opened and we shot back up in the air again. It felt amazing floating in the sky with my feet dangling in the air, taking in the breathtaking views of the Kaikoura Ranges and Abel Tasman. Chris pointed out to me where rs was, spiralling down in a blue parachute. (He said he asked his tandem master for stunts and he got giddy afterwards lol) I'm not spending shit loads of money for photos and videos so I secretly kept my camera in my jacket pocket and it jumped down with me... just for this one photo with my tandem master after landing. Awesome deal from GrabOne only $189 with Skydive Abel Tasman~! 

Envy apples are considered branded, like the LV of bags. They are a hybrid of Royal Gala and Braeburn; the flesh doesn't brown after being cut. It is crunchier and sweeter than other breeds. This was the last batch of apples we packed.