Kaikoura

Overview

Kaikoura bills itself as “the Serengeti of the Pacific”, and it’s easy to find photos online that make it look like everywhere you look in the water there’s sea life in astonishing abundance. That wasn’t quite our experience … but it was still a really exciting stop.

In January, Point Keane just past the town of Kaikoura had a 15–20 minute walk to just incredibly cute southern Fur Seal babies. Total cuteness overdose.

We did Whale Watch Kaikoura. We saw fewer animals overall than I’d envisioned, but we did see several Sperm Whales diving, which made the whole experience special.

Seal Kayak Kaikoura has foot peddle kayaks, which are a total game changer. Your hands are free and dry the whole time to take seal photos. We did a private tour, no regrets, just beautiful.

The Kaikoura museum isn’t large, but has a big surfing display (if you’re into that), but I enjoyed it for the tiny corner documenting the 2016? Kaikoura earthquake — the photos are riveting. Our kayaking tourguide was there when it happened, I think the town was cut off from the rest of NZ for weeks? Months? Due to road closures.
The Hapuku Lodge near town is lovely, but a bit outside of town (10 min drive?), so we spent relatively little time in town after 5pm. Awesome deer herd is resident at the lodge.