December 2 - New Zealand: Kaikoura (South Island)
We left Christchurch fairly early and drove to Kairoura. There really isn't anything exciting to share here, except that - as we neared Kaikoura - Jon yelled, "Hey! Penguins! Pull over!!" So I pulled over to the side of the road and Jon grabbed his camera and hurried to the beach. He slowly climbed down some rocks and carefully approached the penguin.
And then it flew away.
So it wasn't a penguin but a funny-looking bird.
We checked into our Top 10 Campsite and squabbled a bit about where to set up tent. All in a day's travel for us. Finally, with the tent set up and the sky looming with clouds we set off to run a few errands about town.
Whale Watching
We'd made reservations with a Whale Watching company for today at 3:30. But we knew from some other people that the boats were often cancelled because the whales weren't where they were supposed to be. So we stopped by the company to see what the status was for our 3:30 departure. They had cancelled all of the morning trips because of rough seas, but said they wouldn't know about the 3:30 for a while yet. Looking at the size of the swells close to shore, however, we figured that it wouldn't happen.
Shark Diving
We had also heard about a company that does Shark Dives from a cage. So it's not really diving but rather watching. We found the offices and went in to check it out. It seemed like a cool thing to do, but - as Jon pointed out - a bit overpriced for 15 minutes in a cage. We decided our time was better spent doing a real dive.
Scuba Diving
We headed down the street to a scuba shop we'd stopped by on the way into town. The staff seemed nice and the dives sounded interesting. So we signed up for a dive tomorrow morning and were intrigued by the 60-80% chance of seeing Fur Seals.
The Afternoon/Evening
I was pretty beat, so I took a nap while Jon logged into the Internet. At 3:30, we headed over to the Whale Watch offices to find that - indeed - our 3:30 boat had been cancelled because of rough seas. So we returned to the campsite where I caught up on journal entries and Jon went out for a run.
Jon finally logs his runs in NZ! (written on 4 Dec.) - Run #22
So today being Sunday, which is my day for long runs, I decided to give it a shot and try for a long run. I figured that if I could go for an hour I'd have a good indicator of where I stood in terms of making my goal of running an easy 10 miles by Feb or March.
I turned out of the campground and headed along State Highway 1 for about 1.5 - 2km. Can I just mention that New Zealanders call the major roads State Highways but none of them would actually qualify as a major highway in the US. They are quite like the old road that went from Maine to Key West before I-95 was built - A1A, which passes through so many little towns that it would take a week to actually use it to get from Maine to Miami these days.
So anyway, I ran down the highway for a short bit then headed down this little country road that was about 200 meters from the beach. On one side of me I had grazing cows and on the other side I had more cows grazing in the narrow stretch of land between me and the beach, and then the beach. Mixed in between were lots of those bushes with the yellow flowers and a few sheep as well. It was an easy 60 minute+ run, which was good since that's the longest I've run in six months! NY Marathon 2002, here I come.
The campsite is just near the beach, but it's separated by the Whale Watch Offices and a railroad track that's fenced off. So we can't walk directly from the campsite to the beach without going out to the main road, down the road, and down another road. But we can hear the waves crash, if that makes any difference.
We started dinner in the cramped kitchen. There weren't enough ranges to accommodate everyone who wanted to cook, and some of the ranges weren't working at all. So it was a bit of a scramble to find a place to cook. But since Jon was grilling things worked out pretty well. We had BBQ chicken sandwiches with potatoes and vegetables and it was very yummy.
We spent the rest of the evening reading/writing/and watching "The Peacemaker" on the little TV in the kitchen. I remember when they filmed that movie in New York. Most of the last 1/2 hour of the movie was filmed near the UN (where I worked) and in nearby Tudor City. One of my friends came back from lunch saying, "Does anyone know why George Clooney is running up and down 2nd Avenue with a gun?" The movie crew built a church in Tudor City just to blow it up. I'll never forget the day they did the explosion. Everyone I worked with was plastered to the window of our offices to watch the church go up in smoke. But - before we did - we had to wait for a helicopter to get its shot with at least 10 different fly-bys. Then they blew up the church and we were so disappointed that it didn't make more noise.