Pics from Kaikoura

Hello from the lovely little east coast town of Kaikoura! In Maori, "kai" means food and "koura" means crayfish. Dad will remember this fondly as the place that he enjoyed a $100 crayfish dinner at the White Morph restaurant in 2004. I walked past the restaurant twice today and did take a photo, although sadly it's not making an appearance on the blog tonight (sorry dad).

I went with a couple new people I met on the bus today to the seal colony, or "kaimokehu" in Maori. It was about a 3-hour return journey so I was pretty exhausted when I got back, as I didn't get much sleep last night due to our 7:25am departure from our hostel in Christchurch.

A couple pics from the walk to the peninsula seal colony:

These seals (see picture below) were having a bit of a quarrel at one point, which was quite interesting to watch. I don't think I had ever really heard seal noises before, but the one on the left sounded like it was about to vomit every time it opened its mouth, while the one on the right whinnied like a horse a couple times. Very strange, but entertaining nonetheless. The one on the right was pretty much top dog due to his size, I think.

My favourite part? This adorable little seal pup who was hanging out for ages right next to the boardwalk. If he wasn't so stinky and potentially dangerous, I would have just scooped him up for a good cuddle. :op

Tonight we went out to a pub quiz at a little place called "The Whaler." My team came in 4th, but we held 2nd place for quite a while, until the photo round in which we mistook CoCo Chanel for the Queen Mother and a young Hillary Clinton for Shannon Doherty. It was pretty brutal actually, haha. We rocked the general knowledge and history rounds but couldn't manage to pull ahead after the last 2 rounds. Still a ton of fun though, and I met some more cool people on my bus and at quiz night today so it's all good. :o)

Now it's almost 11:30pm and I've just had the BEST HOSTEL SHOWER in the world (so warm!) and I'm in a crazy comfy bed, and generally loving life. Toasty warm and cozy, and ready for a good sleep! Our bus departs tomorrow for Picton, then I catch the ferry to Wellington and arrive mid-afternoon. Tomorrow night we're having tea (supper) at Sam's parents' place, which I'm super excited about! I can't wait to see them after 3 years. On Saturday night we're doing tea at Fiona's mom's house. Yay, family reunions! :o)

Catch you back on the north island! Arohanui!