A Whale of a Tale: Kaikoura At a Glance

Kaikoura is the place where the mountains meet the sea.
Photo by Erin Grigson

I'd known for a while that we might take a day trip to Kaikoura. I had a list ready, of course.

Unfortunately, many of the amazing things to do in Kaikoura (about half my list) cost a lot of money. However, the 6-hour round trip drive was totally worth it if for no other reason than the view.

Kaikoura is on the east coast of the South Island about 2 hours north of Christchurch. Josh drove the whole trip, partly because he knew where he was going, and partly because I'm still getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road.

We left about 8:30 and got there a little after 11:30. There's still a ton of construction happening on the roads.

We went on a weekend that was warm, so there wasn't as
much snow on the mountains.
Photo by Erin Grigson

In 2016, when Josh was still in the U.S., there was an earthquake in Kaikoura. It caused massive amounts of destruction from rock slides and the earth splitting. The slides decimated roads into Kaikoura and cut the district off from supplies for about 5 days.

One of those roads is how we got to Kaikoura and there were at least 5 places where it was still one lane only. Driving through it, we could see why the rock slides so easily covered the roads and closed off the area.

Still, the road led us around the coast. It was beautiful. Around the last bend into the actual town, we were greeted by snow-capped mountains that seemed to rise right out of the Pacific Ocean.

When I say everything in Kaikoura is about whales, I mean everything. Restaurants named The Whaler, cruises called Whale Watch Kaikoura, helicopter rides called Wings Over Whales. And if whale isn't in the names, the shape of a whale or its tale is used outside or in the logo or just to catch your eye.

After the long drive, we were both hungry, so we grabbed lunch at the Groper Garage. I got the Carnivore Pizza, which was huge and delicious.



The seagull nesting colony in Kaikoura
Photos by Erin Grigson

Later, we headed to see the seal colony. It was a treacherous walk along the rocks, but about 25 minutes later, we found it.

Along the way, we passed a seagull nesting colony. I've never seen so many seagulls in one place.

This little guy was just laying out in the sun.
Photo by Erin Grigson

When we got to the seals, I knew it was the perfect day for this trip. It was very warm, one of the warmest days since I've been here, and the seals appreciated the sun. Most of them were laying out, sunbathing lazily. We just stood there and watched for a while. After a while, one poked its head out of the water and starting posing for the camera.

There were so many seals soaking up the sun.
Photos by Erin Grigson

There were signs posted saying to stay 15 feet away because apparently someone got too close to a mothers' pups and got attacked. I made sure to stay a safe distance away, but as cute as the seals were, it's hard to see them as dangerous.

When we came back up the "trail," we took the very short, very steep hike up to Point Kean Lookout. It gave us a pretty great view of the mountains and the ocean.

What I'm slowly finding out is that every trip I take, I find a place we just have to go to to get amazing photos. And conveniently, it happens to always take a rough, steep hike to get there. Luckily, it's always worth the hike.

From there, we went to the Fyffe House. It was built between 1844 and 1860 and has a foundation of whale bones.

Kaikoura is a whaling town. While timber was scarce, whale bones were in great supply. Vertebrae were used as the foundation stones in the Coopers Wing, which is the oldest part of the house. There were also whale bone fence posts behind the house.

The Maori legend of how New Zealand came to be says that the South Island is a canoe and the North Island is the whale that Maui, the demi-god, was trying to catch.

Top left and right: You can see the whalebone foundation still in place.
Bottom left: The Coopers Wing where barrels for whale oil were made.
Bottom right: The house is surprisingly pink and we never did learn why.
Photos by Erin Grigson

Whaling has its history in New Zealand, but Kaikoura especially.

The area where the Fyffe House is located is where Maori first arrived in Kaikoura and where the European whalers and Maori met for the first time, according to Fyffe House history.

When I first think of whalers, I think of Moby Dick. Ships going out to sea and bringing everything back months later.

In Kaikoura, whalers set up close to shore, then followed these steps:

1. Spot whale
2. Chase whale
3. Harpoon whale
4. Get dragged by whale
5. Get closer to tired whale
6. Stab whale's lungs
7. Tie boats together and drag whale back to shore

This process let the carcas be cut up on shore and turned into profit much sooner.

The Coopers Wing of the Fyffe House was used in those whaling days. The cooper would make barrels to hold the oil from the whale.

The farm was definitely beautiful, even without the lavender.
Photos by Erin Grigson

From the Fyffe House, we headed to Lavendyl Lavender Farm. In my research about Kaikoura, I read about their lavender honey ice cream. By now, you all have probably realized I love to try out the sweet stuff. The owner of the shop said that she liked the lavender and chocolate one better. But since I'd read about the honey one, I went with that.

I should have gone with the chocolate one. My mother would be so disappointed.

The ice cream tasted very floral, not so much honey. It wasn't bad, but I've definitely had better ice cream. I love the smell of lavender, not the taste.

As I "enjoyed" my ice cream, we walked through the lavender fields. Unfortunately, it seemed we got there after they had harvested, so there wasn't a whole lot of purple to be seen. But the area was pretty and I can see why people get married there, especially when the lavender is in bloom. We did find a patch of unharvested lavender and the bees were having a field day. Josh took a few pictures then let me have a go.

The bees were loving the little lavender that was left.
Photo by Erin Grigson

Seeing as we were exhausted, we decided that was enough for one day. We stopped at a park, when I saw "whale bone" archways that I wanted a photo of. We walked through the park, got a handful more photos of the amazing mountain/ocean views and I was finally done.

We drove 6 hours for a 5-hour day in Kaikoura, but it was so worth it!