The sunrise this morning was spectacular. We were staying about 10 mins by car out of the town of Kaikoura where there were no streetlights and very few houses. I got up in the middle of the night and looked out at the stars - what a sight. The milky way was directly above and it seemed spectacularly bright and beautiful and quiet.
The sunrise up over the ocean was equally as beautiful. It kept changing every few minutes and it seemed to get better and better. Another hot, hot, hot day in Kaikoura awaited.
Time for us to saddle up and leave Kaikoura and slowly make our way back to Picton to catch the return ferry to the north island. The drive up the Kaikoura coast is spectacular, it hugs the ocean for quite a way and the sea was a flat as a pancake. We stopped at various points to admire the beauty of it all and at every stop we saw dolphins just off the shore line - wonderful. They were too quick to capture on camera but a wonderful sight to see. The marine life on this trip has been great. We've seen seals, sea lions, whales and dolphins all frolicking or going about their business off shore - wonderful.
The land is tinder dry. Some of the stock looked as parched as the land and where there were a few trees for shade the sheep or cattle had wisely all found a spot for respite from the 30degrees heat. Gradually grapevines started appearing alongside the highway in place of stock as we neared Blenheim. The contrast between the green vines and the dry hills was quite something.
We took a walk around the Wairau Lagoon salt marshes. It was amazing to see the funnel web spiders creating a thriving habitat there in all the hot, dry, salt marsh weed. It was too hot for a long walk but great to see the bird life thriving there in a small lagoon beside the salt marsh.
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