Adventurous Kaikoura and Nelson!

Hey guys!! (:

Now here comes the announced report about Kaikoura! Actually I went on two big trips last month, I'll tell you about both - one of them was with my hostfamily to Kekerengu, a village close to Kaikoura, and the other one was a tour with the Outdoor Education group from my school to Nelson and Kaikoura over 3 days. :))
Both trips were just amazing and I can't really describe the beauty of the nature and all those fantastic places we've seen!! That's why I'll mostly show you our pictures in this post.


- Startig with the trip to Kekerengu:

What a view, aye? I bet all of you agree that this is a landscape we wish to see when we’re waking up and looking out of the window, isn’t it? A dream!

Well, for some people this is reality!! Actually this is the view you have when you’re standing outside the house of friends of my hostfamily’s friends (I know, the relation between those people and me is a bit weird because I don’t really know them, but never mind, their house and surrounding is just amazing :D).

On top of that there was real good weather!! I can tell you, that definitely gives you a bright feeling!

These friends even had a pool at their house even though it is already so close to the ocean – I’m really jealous!! :D That must be pretty cool to always have the choice where and when to go swimming. And you can do that while you're observing the mountains, the valley, the plants and animals – wow!

The family has even got a magic dog: He can walk on top of water :b :

They even taught me how to drive a quad:

...actually no, they didnt. :b Just striking a pose for the photo!

The children of my hostfamily’s friends took me on a walk then. I didn’t know what that would be like, so I just followed them – I was wearing flip-flops because I didn’t expect us to climb or to jump on our way!! :D

Anyway, out walk started less tiring than that: walking down a hill and afterwards strolling trough a little stream which goes into the ocean at some point, very lovely!

Here you can now see where the stream "meets" the sea: (:

By the time we reached the coast we stopped at a little café at the beach.
However - to get to this café we had to make our way through some outstanding high flowers:

At the café you had a wonderul sea view.

This picture definitely makes you feel like holiday, doesn't it? :)

Our way back was less of a fight with New Zealand's plants :D We enjoyed walking with our feet in the water - it was a reeeeeeaaally hot day I have to add!!

With the mountains in the back, the sand in the foreground and the ocean on the left I felt so glad to get a picture as I've always dreamed of from New Zealand! Because in my opinion this is what NZL stands for - its multifarious nature.
...and obviously I love the sea, so it had to be on that picture :D

I haven't shown you the family's kids I was walking with yet, so here they are!!
The twins Charlotte and Ashley with their brother Harison. They were really nice!

Our way back after the way along the coast was a little adventure - we often had to climb, walk along very narrow tracks, jump over streams and stones - that was much fun!
For example in this picture you can see a wall (can't really describe it as 'something') we had to climb up:

After about 2 hours of walking and climbing, whatever, which I reeaaaaally enjoyed, we were almost back home.
Here's a picture you got when you were standing
just a view 100m away from those kids' home:

For those who are interested in NZL' flora:
I was told that this is a typical New Zealand flower.
I'm really sorry that I can't remember its name..

Then I made the discovery probably every tourist in NZL will make at some point of his journey through the country:

New Zealand is full of sheep!!! 

Lovely greetings from some NZL sheeps on a farm in Kekerengu - couldn't that be a postcard? :b

Of course there wasn't only sheep on that farm, you could see heaps of them if you had a look around and on our way to Kaikoura there were also plenty of sheeps on fields next to the roads and to the mountains. :)


Still on the same day Charlotte, Ashley and Harison invited me to go up to the swimming pool with them again - sure!! Swimming pool - I'm always coming!
We were very lucky because the weather stayed nice and warm till night and we had the chance to see the sun going down behind the mountains while being in the pool... wooow this was absolutely fantastic!

sunset :)

'Kia Ora' from underwater!

On the following day another big event was waiting! This is one of the activities on my 'Definitely-Have-To-Do-In-NZL'-list :D

Whale Watching!!!

My hostparents and I drove to the Whale Watch station in Kaikoura:





All the people booked on the same tour had to go onto one boat. There are approximately 4 tours each day, that's pretty much and the tours are all sold out! Whale Watching is very popular, especially here in Kaikoura.
On the boat we got some instructions and we were given information about the whales we could possibly see. After about 45 minutes we were told that the crew could spot a whale!
The boat drove to the place in the water where they had gotten the whale's sounds from.

Then we could all see it: the whale!! Laying in the water as if there was nothing going on, calm as a stone - at first you could just see his back:

We were told that this species was called 'Sharky' in former times, and it can grow up to a length of 20 metres.

We were all excited for the moment when Sharky would finally dive into the water and you'd be able to see his tail fin. So: keep your eyes open, cameras ready, go!! :D

This was really an amazing moment!









Even on our way back to Rangiora we got to see some cute animals, habitants of the sea:

seals!! (:

Obviously they had been veeeeeeery busy and were now soooo tired that they didn't care about approaching them till 50cm to get a photo of them asleep :D

You can't even hardly see this one,
I bet seals are good at hiding:










Their friends, the sea gulls, were a bit more awake, hanging out in big groups on the sand:

Wow, those were some exciting days for me! And tiring too, at the end, I have to admit!
Well guys, so this is where my trip to Kekerengu was ending.

Only two days later my trip with the international Outdoor Education group started!

You can’t imagine how many pictures we took! :o I really tried to choose the best ones for you guys, however those are still heaps of photos. :D That’s why I sometimes arranged them as a kind of picture gallery which means one picture following another one, not so much text  – you’ll have a really good impression of Kaikoura, Nelson & surrounding after looking at them! ;)

Our trip started with an awesome ride there! Every half an hour our bus driver stopped and we could get off the bus to take pictures at lookout points, seal watching points or other nice places to have a little snack. This was the first lookout point we stopped at:

Julie (from Norway) and me

At our second stop we could see some seals - it was quite close to where my hostfamily and I also got out of the car to observe the seals on our way from Kaikoura:

they look like they're having a bath in a hot pool, don't they? :b

The water had a beautiful colour at that coast!!

Francesca (from Italy) and me

The place we stopped at afterwards was really amazing: You had a 360° view! Stunning!!

Here you can see our whole international group who participates at the Outdoor Education trips:

photo taken from the other side of the lookout point

I'd also like to present you Eric, our sympathetic and funny bus driver, who takes us to all those gorgeous places. :) He's very nice and always tells us his insider tips and information about the animals, plants and sights we see - that's real cool!

Next stop: A huge pot of fun!

At that point, the - from my point of view - best part of the day was starting: our coastal walk! That was really not just a normal walk - it was a great, varied, exciting, surprising, funny, simply amazing activity! :D

...so this is what we did:

...the 'ask-a-stranger-to-take-a-photo-game':
somebody of our group proposed that game just for fun and in order to get rid of peoples' shyness: we had to ask random people crossing our way, and no matter from which country, to take a picture of us and try to get as many photos as possible :)
above you can see one of those photos

                                                          ...we saw a starfish





...enjoyed NZL nature

...and its views:

...we ran up a big hill just for fun, for the awesome moment when you've reached the top, for the moment :)

... and we had fun at the beach!

That was fantastic!!
After our walk we finally arrived in Kaikoura, not yet at our accomodation for the night, but at least close to our destination :b

Next stop: Kaioura's beach! (:

Japan, Italy, Germany - we're international!

Kaikoura's roads:

Last stop: our accomodation! Yaaaay!
And that was a really nice one - it had a warm swimming pool, a sauna and a SPA-pool! Enjoyable :)

in the pool

SPA-pool

Later on we played volleyball together while the sun went down behind the mountains - lovely!

A great first day was over and with the next day there came new places, new impressions, and of course new photos!! :)

Picture taken at our first stop on our way
to Nelson:

Here we went to a big grape field where there were maaaany many different types of grapes

...and they were real tasty! :D

At another stop we visited a 'Annies' - a big dried fruit company and shop. Maybe some of you guys have already heard of it, it's quite well-known.






Then the 'main attraction' of the day war approaching: swimming and cliff diving in Pelorus River!
Isn't that lake just beautiful?? The water was amazing! It was exactly as I had seen it on pictures presenting New Zealand nature before I came here - that made it even more exciting for me to experience that all.

Cliff jumping! ((:

I also brought my waterproof camera and we had fun taking some pictures underwater :b

In the afternoon then we arrived in Nelson.
I discovered something in the streets that reminded me pretty much of London :D

The next day was probably my favourite one - maybe you'll agree with me after looking at those photos  (;

Some kilometres to walk, aye? :D So, let's go!!

Our group did a walk to Abel Tasman National Park. The path started near the coast and then went mainly through the forest which looked more like a jungle for me! That was enjoyable because of the shade, that day the weather was really hot!

Kim and  Julie :)

Awesome views!!!
We already got a taste of what the beach would look like:

Have a look at the water's and the beach's colour!
As in a movie, isn't it?

When we arrived at Apple Tree Bay, we were all stunned!

This is paradise!!

Our friends, the sea gulls, visited us and came very close :D

After enjoying the sun and taking a swim at the most breathtaking beach we had ever seen, our group went kayaking back to our pickup point!
We had to wear different gear than the last time, lifejackets and something like a big heavy skirt haha:

Kai and me :)

Then it was time to hop onto the kayaks and to rock the sea!!

Our view from the kayak:

It was pretty hard to get both of us on the picture! :D

Say "hi" to NZL's wildlife (:

the highlight - standing on top of the kayaks - was a lot of fun! and very shaky!

In the afternoon we arrived back at our accomodation.
After those exciting (and also very tiring!!) activities some of us still went swimming in the pool:

... and played beach volleyball later on - till the sun went down and we could observe another nice sunset:

The last day of our trip started with a stop at Maruia Waterfall which was pretty impressive!

Then we moved on and had lunch break and time for a swim at Lewis Pass, Springs Junction, in the lake:

I loooove the water's colour!

After that we drove on by bus and stopped at Lake Daniels Track, Lewis Pass, which I will truely never forget!!! This was probably the most amazing view I have ever had!
I watched it and I was like: Wow. This is New Zealand. I'm here. Unbelievable. Stunning. This can not be real!
Look at that and convince yourself:

... Everything comes to an end at some point - this awesome trip, too.

Back in Rangiora now, I'm going to school again as usually. This is also what one of my next posts will be about - school! ;)


So, see ya guys!
Have a nice time,
Greetings from Rangiora:

Yoko ♥