Kaikoura is a lovely town where sea life (both seeing it and eating it) are the order of the day as the continental shelf is only a few hundred metres off shore.
We started with an early morning (sidebar: you'd have thought that not working would equal lots of lie-ins, but actually we always seem to be getting up early to do something) trip to go whale watching.
A company run by the local Maoris has custom made boats with viewing edges. The Sperm whale has a routine of popping up to the surface for ~ 10 minutes, then diving for 40mins or so, so they are actually quite predictable. Once one of their fleet of boats has seen one dive they plot a gps mark so everyone knows when and where to expect it.
As as a result we saw 4 whales of differing sizes and colours:
And a pod of dolphins (as we'd got lucky with the whales we had some time free):
Kaikoura means meal of crayfish in Maori so it seemed fitting it should be on the menu, but once we saw the prices of a crayfish dinner (~£55) we decided it would be better value and more fun to go fishing.
Turns out deep line fishing gives you one tired arm from all the reeling in. Having joined a group on a fishing boat we caught a blue cod, a weaver cod and 4 perch between us which they filleted for us on board (phew- Gerty is well stocked but she doesn't have a filleting knife). Given the tide was hiding the cray pot buoys they also gave us one of the mornings catch to take home. Now we only have a small chilly bin so the cray had to travel in a carrier bag held up on a bungy, but on arrival at yet another beautiful beachside government camp site (£6 per night), he seemed no worse for wear.
What followed was a Fawlty towers 20 minutes whilst we worked out how to not only get him out the bag (he was understandably jumpy and has spikes), kill him, but also fit him in the tiny saucepan (whilst we took every precaution possible to avoid cruelty suggest Megan- look away now).
We were told if we couldn't boil him whole the best way to kill him kindly was to drown him ( 15 mins in fresh water):
Yes that's him under there in a washing up tub of fresh water!
Then we found if we removed a few of the longer appendages he would fit in the pot!
What followed was a delicious meal about as fresh as it is possible to be. Life's good.
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