Day 19 & 20: Kaikoura

Sadly the information regarding the weather overnight and today was very accurate! I woke in the morning, after a very cold night, I definitely need more blankets even though there is an electric blanket which I used 😳 It is absolutely chucking it down with rain and hail, there are strong winds and very low cloud.

I decide to walk down to town and check at the Whale Watching office if the tour is cancelled, this seemed like a good idea whilst sitting indoors in the dry! Shortly after leaving the hostel the rain got even heavier and by the time I have got down to the bottom of the zig zag hill I was soaked, by the time I got to the Whale Watch Office, my clothes were saturated, my jeans were dripping water down into my boots! I walked in looking very bedraggled and pitiful only to be told that the whale watching was indeed cancelled! The lovely lady I spoke to changed my booking to the next day, and the weather forecast was looking more favourable. I stopped to have a Cup of tea and attempted to warm up a little, which didn’t work! I walked back through the rain and hail, up the zig zag hill which now resembled a waterfall and back to the hostel. I stripped of my soaking wet clothes jumped into a hot shower then plonked myself in front of the wood burner in the lounge with a cup of tea and a huge fluffy blanket and stayed there for the next 5hrs!! I was joined by a lovely French girl called Eliza, who is backpacking around NZ and is currently working  in Kaikoura, we were also joined by the beautiful Maui the cat, the hostels best attraction! 😍

when I had got warm and dry and my coat had dried out and the rain had stopped I walk back to town to get some lunch/dinner. There are facilities to cook at the hostel but when you are only staying a few nights and the supermarket is a ways out of town, what do you do!! I went to a nice local cafe and had a yummy homemade Macaroni Cheese, the lovely guy also made me. Baileys Latta under instruction from me! 😂 It was good, but not a patch on my Coffee on the Corner ones!!

After this I headed back to the hostel and my spot by the fire, with Maui! People came and went, I chatted to a really sweet girl from Hong Kong, who was very shy and seemed a little sad, she is on her own, but didn’t seem happy about it, is not liking the work she is doing and was very critical of her own English language skills, which as I pointed were  100% better than my Cantonese!  I felt sorry for her, and we ended up doing some breathing exercises and a little bit of Thai Chi! Thank you Hayley for my notes on all the moves! This at least made her laugh!

I went to bed, after leaving both my heater and the electric blanket on for hours and adding 2 extra blankets to my bed, in the hopes of a good nights sleep. I think it worked to some degree, but I still had a restless night.

I woke to sunshine and no rain and wind, but  looking good for my whale watching,  I was able to check out the status on their website and all morning it was saying “pending” then at 9.55 “Pending” changed to “Cancelled”!! Out at sea the wind is gusting up to 75mph, Absolutely bloody gutted!! I looked at staying another night in the hopes that I can go to tomorrow but it isn’t possible without incurring lots of extra costs and there is no guarantee that the weather won’t be rough again tomorrow.

It is such a bugger! The weather over the coming weekend is looking good, and winter is the best time to see killer whales as well as the sperm whales! But I guess it is not meant to be.

I couldn’t even visit the Ski Fields and Lodge, as yesterday the road was closed due to the heavy snow fall in the mountains and today I had missed the sodding shuttle!!  I walked around town a bit, visited the museum, then came back to the hostel and am currently doing repeat of yesterday!

I leave in the morning for Christchurch.

Bye for now from a slightly deflated me. 😘

Author: hereandthereclaire

Hi, my name is Claire and I am 60 years young, welcome to my blog. I am new to the whole travel and blog writing world, so no judging! I recently made some big life changes, leaving my job in education and moving myself and my younger children to Newquay in Cornwall, I then started a business with some fantastic friends #coffeeonthecornernewquay. And now I am about to embark on my first big travel adventure...I would love to share this with you. Since starting this blog in 2018 I have made more changes, and now in 2024 I will be traveling full time for the next year! Please join me in sharing my Big Adventure! ❤️ View all posts by hereandthereclaire