Quintessential Kiwi Christmas

25 December 2017

It's a beautiful 31˙C Christmas Day  (~88˙F) in Kaikoura!

Nearly everything is closed in this little resort town for Christmas, and we anticipated that by planning a long swim-and-tramp day.

As is typical, the start of the tramp is steep as

First glimpse of the South Bay of Kaikoura Peninsula

 We walked down to the South Bay and I goofed with the camera somehow and took videos instead of still pictures. Darn. A good handful of locals were there enjoying quintessential Kiwi Christmas at the beach. We saw jetskis, a powerboat pulling a tube, boogie boards and paddle boards. The water was cold as. Ruben did quite a bit of swimming because the water was calm, but it was too cold for me. I stayed where I could have my shoulders out of the water to stay warm!

Back on the track after the swim break.

Finally a shady bit!

 Possibly my favorite part of this was the section through the residential area. I could live here! The view! The mountains! The ocean! There was a mix of batches and permanent homes. Several locals stopped to have a chin wag with us on the street and told us that the bay protects them from the harshest winter weather. Tick that box!

Kiwis Christmasing at the beach

Campa vans at the lookout point

Limestone formations into the Pacific Ocean.
There are lots of people on the rocks looking at the sea lions who are sunbathing there.
Hard to see in the picture, but the sea lions are the dark blobs. We saw one charge a tourist who got too close.
He or she moved that big body pretty quick!

The dark blobs are sea lions

Nearing the end of our tramp. This is Fyffe House, the oldest building in Kaikoura.
Kaikoura was established as a whaling town. I doubt the building was originally pick.
From other history markers we saw, it probably had a roof made of sailcloth.

I just liked the NZ flag blowing in the breeze in front of this hotel.

When we  got back to the hotel (we stopped about 40 minutes from the end of our tramp at the town boat launch and stood under the public shower for a few minutes to cool off for the last push), we went straight to the gorgeous Christmas lunch the innkeepers put on for the guests. They had it all, and I should have captured it on film--ham, lamb, turkey, saag paneer, lentil curry, roasted potato and kumara, cooked carrots, roasted heads of garlic, and green salad. For pudding there was pavlova, sherry trifle, plum pudding, and custard. And lots of drinkies. Now we nap!