Kaikoura

For those of you who are wondering why we're not on a farm yet, we had originally scheduled a farm stay for this week, but it fell through. We've decided to take this as providence and take the next twelve days to do some eco-tourism and exploring off the beaten path.

Kaikoura is truly a marine town. Along the rocky beach, there are surf shops and fish and chips take-aways. Yesterday Steve had a juicy, delicious “Hawaiian burger.” Here's a list of what they put on it: Burger, cheese, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pineapple, onions, and lastly, sliced beets! He could have opted for ketchup (“tomaato” sauce) for an additional 60 cents, but decided it would be a little TOO much.

Due to a 2000 meter-deep drop directly off the coast and the convergence of two distinct ocean currents, Kaikoura's waters are an excellent feeding ground for many ocean animals, including whales, dolphins, and our favorite, the NZ fur seal ('cause you can see those for free!) About 2k down the coast lies a colony of fur seals that sun themselves on the brown rocks. They camouflage in so well with the landscape, but we had a special few encounters, including a few close ones.

We freedom camped on the beach, opening our van hatch to the fresh ocean breeze, making a habit to watch both the sunset and sunrise every day. One of the most enjoyable things about New Zealand so far is that the days are so much longer. Since we're further than the equator than we're used to, and we're below it as well, it's summertime. Also, the sun rises at about 6:30AM local time and sets around 9:30PM, so it's only really dark for about 7 hours a night.

As we're writing this, the day is indeed fading, so we must depart now. We'll see you in a week or so to update you on our adventures.