Kaikoura

After Anikiwa we went down and spent a couple of days at Rarangi, near Blenheim, and in the middle of vineyard country. We stayed at the house of a friend of T and P's and did a bit of playing around. No pics, strangely. I'm not sure why, it was beautiful: Penguins, nice beaches, surging caves, surfing on deserted beaches. Nice place. You should go there.

Kaikoura Playground. NZ playgrounds are great, not safe, generally poorly maintained and often some really fun devices for adults to play on.

This teeter-totter only had one seat

Beach time at Mangamanu

Phil and I went a-huntin'-and-a-gatherin' for Paua

Kaikoura is beautiful, the mountains go straight up from the ocean here. Also, just offshore is an enormously deep trench so it's rich in marine biodiversity.

Father daughter chat

Paua for dinner. Note the 'tenderizer' on the left.

I can't believe, in retrospect, how ghetto we must have looked to normal tourists.

Tobin wandering around, barefoot, dirty and eating 'Spicy Bijah Mix'. And yes we did only bring him one outfit to wear.

At Kaikoura I had a transcendent moment while surfing. The swell was big, much larger than I felt comfortable going out in, and the crowds were...crowded. After three days of watching from the beach, being simultaneously envious and grateful that I wasn't out there, Phil convinced me to go out on our last evening. I grudgingly agreed and marched off with him, sure I was going to die. We paddled out and I took a bit of a beating, getting swept down the beach, pounded by huge waves and passed by 9 year old girls.

Finally I made it waaaaayyy outside and down the line, sure that I would be safe from a) actually having to catch a wave, b) getting in someones way and c) killing anyone with my surfboard which was bound to go haywire with me thrashing around under it when a big set came through.
I was starting to relax a little, did some lackluster paddling for a few waves, when, once in a while, Phil would calmly say: "paddle bro" which was a euphemism for "PADDLE LIKE HELL OR YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!!". This happened too many times to count.

I was still way outside and down the line so safely away from everyone, when a biggish set came along. As the first wave came through I thought, "what the hell, I may as well go for it". So I paddled into it just right, it was a right hander so I had a good chance, but it was bigger than any wave I've ever been on, 6-8', so I was trying not to think about it... Suddenly the board started planing down the wave, I jumped to my feet, other surfers were cheering me on, and I did my bottom turn, a nice carve. Then as the wave softened I pumped the board along the face and carved back down. "I'm actually riding a wave!" I thought in disbelief. And then WHAM! The wave closed out on my head and sent me straight to Davey Jones' Locker for the same amount of time I rode the wave. At that point, I figured I better end it on a high note, so clawed my way gratefully onto the beach.

Surfing at Mangamanu

Contemplating

More ghetto style

Hiking around the penninsula