"Kaikoura" a Kaikoura Travel Page by martin_nl

Kaikoura is a small town on the east coast a few hundred kilometers north of Christchurch. It's a unique town for the fact that such a small town has so many interesting things on offer. It used to be just a small fishing town with very good crayfish. But then a couple of decades ago a small company started doing Whale Watch trips and since then everything changed.

Kaikoura used to be the South Island's best kept secret, but something this good can't be kept quiet for too long. Kaikoura means to eat Crayfish. Actually the full name is Te Ahi kai koura a Tama ki te rangi, which means 'This great traveller stayed here and lit a fire to cook a meal of crayfish. Just so you know.... But it's not the crayfish but the whales, dolphins, seals and the fish and chips that kaikoura is becoming ever more popular for.

I only spend one night in Kaikoura, but I wish I spend some more time here. The day I got to Kaikoura I wanted to do some whale watching, but unfortunately, because of strong winds at sea all the whale watches of the day were cancelled. Since the weather was fine we decided to do the Promenade Walks that take you around and over the peninsula Kaikoura is situated on.

Next morning I went on a Dolphin Encounter trip. This meant getting up extremely early in the morning and a swim with the dolphins if we could find them. The reason there is so many marine wildlife to be found in Kaikoura is because there are a cold and a warm stream of water coming together here and there is a shelf that slopes gradually to about 90 metres and then plunges 800 metres!! Because of the currents food from the bottom of the ocean comes up close to the service and then the sperm whales eat. This is why these whales are resident here most of the year. The food also attracts dolphins and killer whales, or orca's.