We didn't have much planned for day 7, we just knew that we needed to
make it to our reservations for the night in Kaikoura. It's about
4 to 4.5 hours if you just drive it straight through. Before we
began our drive, we decided to check out the market in downtown
Motueka. They didn't have much there that we found interesting,
but we did find out that there is a quite a market for used books in
New Zealand. We found out later how expensive books actually were
in New Zealand, so that explains why there were so many used books for
sale at the market.
After the market, we started driving. About and hour and a half
into the drive we came across a small park called Pelorus Scenic
Bridge. We had read about it in the NZ Frenzy book and decided to
stretch our legs on the trail. It was a nice little walk and a
good way to break up the drive.
Pelorus Scenic Bridge
We continued on with our drive which took us right through a region
with tons of wineries so we decided to stop in and sample some wines.
Fields of grapes
We stopped at a few wineries and my parents bought a couple of bottles
of wine. We then continued on towards Kaikoura. We got a
little nervous because I was planning to fill up gas in a town between
Blenheim and Kaikoura. There was a gas station in the GPS, but
when we got there, it was unattended and didn't take foreign credit
cards or gas. We were able to speak to someone at a store and she
told us there was another station about 10 miles up the road. We
were very glad to hear that or we would have had to turn around and
drive about 45 minutes back to a larger town. We drove the 10
miles and found the gas station as advertised. We were pretty
leery, because the station wasn't in the GPS, but it was exactly where
she said it would be. We filled up and continued on with our drive
through the rolling countryside. Pretty soon we could see the
coast and got rewarded with an amazing view. I just hopped out of
the car and snapped a quick photo and it turned out to be one of my
favorite from the whole trip.
Eastern coast near Kaikoura
We drove on down the coast and stopped off at a fur seal colony
Seals playing in the surf
We then made a quick stop at a waterfall right near the seal colony.
We then headed in to town to find our lodging for the night. We
had booked two cottages at Bay
Cottages.
We pulled in and met the owner Graham, and he showed us to our
cottages. The cottages were a great value at $120NZ for us and
$100NZ for my parents. They were very spacious, clean, and well
maintained. We headed to downtown to find supper. Tyler and
I ate at a takeout fish and chips place while Erin and my parents got
pizza. The fish and chips were excellent and dirt cheap.
The pizza was fine, but nothing too exciting. We headed back to
our cottages and got ready for the next day.
Continue to Day 8
Back to trip home
