New Zealand Diary, Day 10 morning

Day 10, morning: This is Summer?
We awoke hungry for a "cooked breakfast". We asked Robyn about a good place to get it, and she recommended the Dolphin Encounter's café, just about a block toward West End on The Esplanade. It was just over 200m, but it seemed like a long block. While waiting for our brekkie, we looked over the brochures for local activities. We learned there was a walking track around the end of the peninsula, with one across the middle to form a loop. We decided to give that a go after breakfast.

After stopping back by the hotel to put on sunscreen and pick up the camera, we set off down The Esplanade, and the boardwalk along the beach, away from West End and toward the end of the peninsula. After a short way, the boardwalk ended, and we climbed back up to walk along the road. Along the way we passed a council park with a playground, where a family was unloading supplies for a picnic. A couple of people were walking or running along the beach with their dogs. After about 1km, we passed the old commercial pier, and the Pier Hotel, with its large, glass-walled café half-full of patrons enjoying a late breakfast while watching the surf roll in. The road continued past a small residential area and around Fyffe Point, on the upland side of which sits the historic Fyffe House. Onward we went, past fishermen, past fishmongers with their steaming pots of crayfish, past signs advising people of size restrictions on the fish they catch. At the end of about another 1km, we reached a small carpark for the Kaikoura Peninsula Park, where we found the trailhead for the Peninsula Walkway.

The first few meters of this track didn't thrill me--a half dozen switchbacks up the side of the cliff. Once on top, though, the vista was worth the climb. Not only was there a majestic seascape with mountains behind the houses on the peninsula, but the top of the peninsula itself was a wide expanse of meadows and knolls, with rows of trees along the property borders. The meadows were populated with cattle, some adults, some yearlings. The knolls were populated with farmhouses and mobile phone towers. In the distance, we could see the “upper crust” neighborhood on the spine. The track crossed a couple of stiles where the pasture fence went all the way to the cliff's edge, and passed along the precipice where there was room.

Just before we reached the first stile, this little bird was sitting on a fencepost singing. He seemed unconcerned with us as we passed. Just like when I sing in the car.

About halfway around the walk, there was a small area with benches and a spur track that descended to a seabird colony. DW has more energy than I, so she took the camera and went down to the beach. She took a few photos before the birds decided she was lingering a bit too long and began to act a bit aggressively.

After she returned to the top, we continued on toward South Bay, passing more cattle on more rugged hills, and a small view point from which we could see kayakers paddling out to see if the dolphins would come around. From that point, the walkway was paved (for wheelchair access) down to the South Bay carpark.

Then it was back along neighborhood streets by the waterfront until, with the aid of the tourist map from Encounter Kaikoura, we found the track that went back across the peninsula toward our hotel. As we climbed the spine, we passed through a forest with small rivulets, finally emerging on top again between two pastures. At the end of a 150m alley, we crossed the road that rides the ridge, then went back down through another bit of woods until we got to the street above The Esplanade, just at the intersection of the street our hotel was on.

It's a good thing we didn't have far to go, because ever since we'd reached South Bay the sky had been growing darker. Just as we crossed the street and started down the block to our hotel, it began sprinkling, and we crossed the courtyard to our room under a steady drizzle. By the time we'd eaten lunch, it was a regular rain, but not windy. We decided it was a good time to take in one or two of the more touristy attractions we'd read about, and I'll tell you all about it—in my next post.