Kaikoura

May 29, 2011

My stay here in Kaikoura has been interesting and different than I expected.  On the whole it’s been really nice.  I had that first nice walk with Siskia and Rhianna.  The next day I was supposed to go on my whale watch and I was so excited.  In the morning I walked around town.  I went to the I-site and the beach and I trolled the shops.  They have really unique and creative boutiques here!  

Then when I went to the whale watch it was cancelled.  I was pretty bummed.  But Siskia and I ended up doing the peninsula walk.  The walk took about three hours.  First we walked out to the seal colony where we saw loads of seals.  Everywhere seals.  Then we climbed up the hill to the pasture land.  The walk took us along the cliffs overlooking the beach and the Pacific Ocean.  We mostly walked through cow and sheep pastures.  It kind of reminded me of the guided walk I went on in South Africa, but on a smaller, less magnificent scale.  

That same evening I ran into some other folks who were on my Stray bus.  We had chips together and watched a movie.

Today I went to church at the Presbyterian church.  It was a lovely little service and what the pastor said really spoke to me.  I went to a cafe and sat outside in the sunshine afterwards.  It was a lovely, warm day.  The weather does not feel like winter weather!  

I kept praying that my whale watch would go today and that we’d see a lot of whales!  Well, my prayer was answered.  We only saw one whale, but we saw a lot of him!  It was a male sperm whale.  They kind of float at the top and then dive under and splash their big beautiful tales.  We also saw between 200 and 300 dusky dolphins swimming in the sea.  It was incredible!  I’ve never seen anything like it!  They move so fast.  I would have been happy to watch them all day long.  We also saw a seal and many albatrosses, the largest sea bird I’ve ever seen.

I went back to church this evening because they were having a region-wide service for people from all the different churches and denominations in the area.  The Presbyterian pastor preached.  This guy really has a heart for winning people to the Lord.  He spoke on revival.  He really wants to see revival for Kaikoura.  It was pretty neat.  Afterwards I had tea and biscuits and talked to a few people.  One older man really wanted to talk to me and I ended up staying and chatting to him.  He is really interested in the US, but he said he’s too old to travel there now so his best chance of learning about it is to talk to an American.

I met up with Siskia after church.  We shared our experiences from the day.  She went swimming with those 200-300 dolphins!  Overall Kaikoura has been a great stopover.  I’m glad I got off the bus here and I’m glad I got to connect with some Christians while I was here.  That’s just as important as seeing sperm whales and dusky dolphins!