Day 3 (21 October 2026)
One last look at Hanmer Springs. It really is so beautiful and tranquil, and it thrills me that so many of their foliage is in bloom with pink and purple flowers. Lesley-Anne says it reminds her of Stars Hollow in the tv series Gilmore Girls - small town living where everyone knows each other. I'm not sure I'm ready to migrate to a small town, but I think if I lived here, my blood pressure would come down naturally.
Today, we are driving to the coastal town of Kaikoura which is right by the south Pacific Ocean. Made a pit stop at Waiau Village for a morning snack of pies and coffee.
Arrived in Kaikoura, the name meaning "eat crayfish". Apparently crayfish is the highlight here, but we didn't eat any because we found it too exorbitantly priced. The cheapest going rate is NZ$74 for half a crayfish! 😱
The highlight of the day here is to go foot-pedal kayaking, offered by Seal Kayak Kaikoura.
This is a novel concept - instead of using an oar to paddle, each kayak is fitted with a couple of foot pedals (one in front and one behind), as shown by the guide here. You use your feet to pedal to move the kayak and there's a small mechanism on the side to steer. This leaves your hands completely free to hold your phone or camera to take photos. There's even a cup holder by the side of the kayak if you want to bring a drink!
It's two people to a kayak so I got in with Andre.
We picked a perfect day for this activity. The sun was up, and the sea was very calm, as calm as it could be. Even though it's the South Pacific Ocean, the rocky outcrops block the large waves. The guide says they check the weather daily to see which side of the bay would be calmer. Blue skies greeted us, and as we pedaled out, it was so serene being surrounded by gently lapping waters and seeing snowcapped mountain. It felt like we were part of a postcard.
But the highlight was the wildlife. We saw fur seals sunbathing on the rocks. In 2016, there was an earthquake in Kaikoura that caused these rocks to be elevated. Before that, the seals would rest inland but now, they just conveniently lie on the rocks.
Entire flocks of birds, mostly shearwaters and shags (or cormorants)...
Our sharp-eyed guide spotted a jellyfish in the water and held it up for us.
Then as we were pedaling back towards the shore, we spotted dolphins! According to the guide, dolphins typically don't come during this time of the year, as they are still protective over their young. The guide said he hadn't seen dolphins in a week. Just as he said it, we saw a pod of dolphins in the distance - they were doing back flips! It was unreal. HM mentioned that he thought they're only trained to do that in captivity. Apparently not, they do back flips in the wild too. Maybe they were putting on a show for us 😍
This is where we discovered that the guides really love what they do. Because dolphins were spotted, they brought us back out a little further to see if we could catch more of them, even though it would take up more time. And that's when I experienced the most magical moment on this entire trip - dolphins showed up right in front of my kayak! I even managed to get them on video. Thank you God 🩷
There's something very ethereal about this experience - I realise I love being on the water and in a kayak, you're as close as you can get without being in the water (vs being in a boat). There's also the freedom of being able to pedal wherever you want to go, and there's time to take in the sheer beauty and expanse of nature. Yet it wasn't too strenuous and therefore suitable for the whole family.
I had no expectations for this activity as I couldn't imagine what it would be like. But after this experience, this was hands down, my absolute favourite activity of the entire trip. I would do this again in a heartbeart 💙 Here's my attempt at capturing the moment artistically. (Stating the obvious here but this was painted afterwards, not while I was kayaking, which would have been quite a feat 🤔).
After that activity, we checked into our lodging for the night - Kaikoura Waterfront Apartments. We managed to get two ground floor apartments side by side - they're roomy and very comfortable.
For dinner, we headed out to Coopers Catch Fish and Chips. (Of course there are gulls. Where there are fish and chips in the open, there will be gulls waiting to snatch your fry when you're distracted).
The fish is very fresh, the cod was excellent. What was not so excellent was that they had a large back order, so we had to wait about an hour for the food, by which time we were so hungry we just pounced on the food like hungry hyenas.
While we were waiting, Mona went across the road for an ice cream.
Still not quite done for the night, we proceeded to the Pier hotel for mussels, beer and cocktails. Green-lipped mussels are the specialty in this area. We thought mussels in Thai green curry sounded odd, but it turned out to be surprisingly delicious.
The guide told us Pier Hotel had the best view of the South Pacific Ocean...
...and he was right, especially at sunset. Gorgeous 🌅
