Kaikoura

It's been so good to have time to stay and play in this lovely town. The weather has been wonderful and so we've walked and walked and loved it. We had 4 nights at the NZMCA, north end, 2 nights at The Point POP, South End of town and then 1 night at the NZMCA park in South Bay. All of them were great but the POP had wonderful views out to sea and plenty to watch as the world wandered by our MH.
We did a coastal walk from the North end and over the next few days we did the Penninsular Walkway 3 times. It's a bit of a puff getting up the hill but so worth it. Once there the track opens up to well maintained, manicured grass and some bush. Fabulous views out to sea are very rewarding. The bottom peninsular walk offers great views too but the track surface is rubbish. The first part is large natural rock formations around the edge of the cliff, which we didn't mind navigating, followed by a track covered in large grade white stones which makes walking really tricky and so we opted to climb the steps halfway round and continue on the top track. We decided to head up again the next day just for the hell of it but followed that up with a bowl of hot chips and gelato served to us by the food trucks right across the road from the POP. Delicious!
From the NZMCA in South Bay we walked the St Paul's track. More steps and a quirky prayer box complete with pen and paper to leave your thoughts, akin to lighting a candle in a church, I suppose.
We were entertained by a great busker in the main street and have loved all the friendly people we've met and socialised with along the way whilst here . We had decided to have a night at the Puhi Puhi DOC camp, just north of Kaikoura, and loved the very pretty bush walk and the little river but I had a really uneasy feeling there so we headed back to Kaikoura. David says 'Happy wife, happy life!'.
We moved on to Conway Flat but will cover that in an upcoming post.Les mer