Seals and Chitons

I arrived in New Zealand with no delays, met Katie, and collected the Britz camper van, which I was a bit surprised to find was a standard shift, on the left of the steering wheel, so the whole driving on the left side was becoming more complex. We found a campground right outside the city of Christchurch, and decided to do some walking downtown while the sun was up to fight off the inevitable jet lag. We took the bus to the city center, watched a bagpipe and drum corps practicing on the green. We walked through the botanical gardens before it got dark, and it really cooled off, so we took the bus back to the campground.

This morning we drove the two hours north to Kaikoura, where Perry has been studying for the past semester. The place is beautiful, but very quiet as the group was all gone, except for Perry, and one other student who was going to do some traveling with her mom.

We got a quick tour, and then took Perry downtown to get some fish n chips with L&P! A lemon and ginger soda, for lunch. We walked down to the beach, very pebbly, round black rocks and huge bull kelp, and an odd gurgling sound when the waves recede. We walked a little further down towards the point, and saw some fur seals lazing around in the warm sun on the rocks.

Perry showed us how much he's learned about marine biology by naming most of the snails, mussels and other unusual creatures sliming around on the rocks in the rising tide. I tossed him a huge snail I found to show it to him, but it fell short and exploded all over his shirt! (It looked like snot)

Now we're off to settle in at the local a campground, see if we can find more baby seals, and possible some Thai food for supper.

Here's a few of the photos I took so far of this part of the journey..

Some of the extremely lush and vertical scenery on the drive north to Kaikoura.

The seals we saw were very sleepy and enjoying the sunny rocks.

The surf was really high on these rocky shores.

These jungle-like trees along the road look like there's two layers in the canopy.

Perry showed us around the old convent

This former chapel was the main lecture hall for their classes

The dining room still bore the signs of last night's farewell festivities. Everyone had done some finger-painting as a parting gift.

The main kitchen

One of Perry's projects was to paint to shed that will hopefully soon become their chicken coop.

A self-portrait.

The back wall of the coop.

The other wall.

The convent's mascot nun.

Where they did their laundry all semester

Perry's room.

The rear of the convent

A short pit stop along the road south towards Christchurch to captures a few photos.

The bagpipers and drummers practicing in the city park

A most dandelion-like fountain

Katie was enjoying the culture of Christchurch

The music was amazing, along with the drummers who showed up a few minutes later.

A marching band practice?

Parry gave us the tour, this is the balcony overlooking the laundry tubs below.

Perry showing us the bull kelp, lage sheets of which was used by the Maori to make wet-suit-like diving suits for protection from the cold waters. They used guts for thread, and whale-bone sewing tools.

Perry introduced us to chitons and lots of other mollusks.

Sleepy seal.