Once a year a, little town, just north of Christchurch called Rangiora becomes the biggest deal in New Zealand as it hosts the countries biggest car show. This also happens to be where Ian and Hayley live, and with Ian being a big ‘rev head’ it was a great excuse to go along and join them for a day at the show. There was one more little surprise up Ian’s sleeve as he fired up his classic old British made Humber. He wasn’t showing the car in the show, but it still got plenty of attention in the car park.
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The show was packed with awesome cars that had been lovingly restored. New Zealand is an oasis for classic old cars and they are absolutely everywhere. We saw some brilliant classic 80’s tv show cars including a dukes of Hazard Dodge Charger, a perfect Kit from Knight Rider and an A team van! Samuel was loving all of the classic American cars, which to him were all the characters from his favourite film Cars starring Lightning McQueen.
Samuel meets Sheriff from Cars.
After the show we were all back to the house for a fish and chip supper and also met some of Ian and Hayley’s friends who popped by to say hi. Hayley was also kind enough to help us book our whale watching tour as she works for her Dad’s bike touring company and even swerved us a 10% discount, which was most appreciated! The next morning we were up early to make the 2.5 hour drive North to Kaikoura to catch our boat.
We piled into Scuttlebug, yes, this is the name that Clair and the kids have come up with for the car, as apparently to them, it looks like a big bug. The drive was going absolutely fine and we were making pretty good time, right up until we hit the steep and bendy roads. Old scuttle bug is a beaut, but she needs a little extra time up the hills and the kids were also beginning to struggle with the motion sickness.
Samuel was the first domino to fall and announced he was about to puke. Thankfully we still had some hospital grade sick bags with us from our emergency room visit in Melbourne, so we were well prepared. However, these sick bags are plastic and non biodegradable, so pitching them by the side of the road was just not an option, plus we only had 3 of them and plenty more driving ahead. So the bag was emptied and swished out by the side of the road and then tucked under scuttlebug’s windscreen wiper for safe keeping. We decided it was best off out of the car rather than stinking us out of puke!
Back on the road and rolling along we were hoping that nobody else would suffer. No such luck of course. Sophia was next and unfortunately succumbed to motion sickness too. We pulled over again for another stop, a leg stretch, a gulp of fresh air and another sick bag cleansing operation. Needless to say we were now running tight for time for a 10am arrival at whale watching HQ. We made it for 9.58am and Clair dashed in to get us registered.
Disaster, we were deemed too late to make the next trip and were then told that regardless of our arrival time we would not have been allowed to take the twins on anyway. The swell in the sea was at 2.5 metres and the captain had ordered any children under 5 to not be allowed on the boat as children on an earlier trip had been really ill for the whole duration. We argued our case and asked if they would reconsider, but the instructions were direct from the captain and there was nothing to be done. We asked to be put on a later boat, in the hope that the sea would calm throughout the day, but we were advised the forecast for later that day was not good and that they were already considering cancelling the later boats anyway. About to give up and be forced into coming back another day the lady suggested we take the flight instead.
“How much extra is the flight?”
“No extra, we will just transfer your booking.”
“Er, ok then, let’s do that!”
We got back into Scuttlebug and headed for the airport, which was basically a cabin, in a field, next to a tiny runway.
Captain Anthony from Wings over Whales talked us through an educational video about the Sperm Whale and the Dusky Dolphins that we hoped to see, and then gave us a safety briefing. We were then kitted out with headphones and life jackets and walked onto the strip for our awaiting aircraft. Yup, our own private plane! Samuel thought it was the best thing ever and Kaitlyn claimed she felt like a celebrity.
Samuel was the first domino to fall and announced he was about to puke. Thankfully we still had some hospital grade sick bags with us from our emergency room visit in Melbourne, so we were well prepared. However, these sick bags are plastic and non biodegradable, so pitching them by the side of the road was just not an option, plus we only had 3 of them and plenty more driving ahead. So the bag was emptied and swished out by the side of the road and then tucked under scuttlebug’s windscreen wiper for safe keeping. We decided it was best off out of the car rather than stinking us out of puke!
Back on the road and rolling along we were hoping that nobody else would suffer. No such luck of course. Sophia was next and unfortunately succumbed to motion sickness too. We pulled over again for another stop, a leg stretch, a gulp of fresh air and another sick bag cleansing operation. Needless to say we were now running tight for time for a 10am arrival at whale watching HQ. We made it for 9.58am and Clair dashed in to get us registered.
Disaster, we were deemed too late to make the next trip and were then told that regardless of our arrival time we would not have been allowed to take the twins on anyway. The swell in the sea was at 2.5 metres and the captain had ordered any children under 5 to not be allowed on the boat as children on an earlier trip had been really ill for the whole duration. We argued our case and asked if they would reconsider, but the instructions were direct from the captain and there was nothing to be done. We asked to be put on a later boat, in the hope that the sea would calm throughout the day, but we were advised the forecast for later that day was not good and that they were already considering cancelling the later boats anyway. About to give up and be forced into coming back another day the lady suggested we take the flight instead.
“How much extra is the flight?”
“No extra, we will just transfer your booking.”
“Er, ok then, let’s do that!”
We got back into Scuttlebug and headed for the airport, which was basically a cabin, in a field, next to a tiny runway.
Captain Anthony from Wings over Whales talked us through an educational video about the Sperm Whale and the Dusky Dolphins that we hoped to see, and then gave us a safety briefing. We were then kitted out with headphones and life jackets and walked onto the strip for our awaiting aircraft. Yup, our own private plane! Samuel thought it was the best thing ever and Kaitlyn claimed she felt like a celebrity.
Our plane awaits.
Captain Anthony loads us in.
Did you know that the Sperm Whale can make the loudest noise of any animal on the planet? It uses it’s sonar to locate prey, then increases the pulse and volume of the sonar to completely confuse and stun it’s prey so as to make it easy to catch. They eat squid, giant squid, fish and even sharks! There has been one reported case of a French cameraman who was filming a female Sperm Whale with her calf, he was getting a little too close for comfort. The female blasted him a warning sign by pulsing her sonar at him. He reported that even being underwater, when the warning pulse hit him it was like being kicked by a horse. Imagine how little chance prey have when caught in a killer sonar pulse!
All in and buckled up ready for take off, Lauren insisted on sitting at the back out of view!
Samuel enjoying his flight and the amazing views of Kaikoura.
Captain Anthony had been in constant contact with a boat already on the water and 2 other aircraft over the sea and was alerted that a whale was at the surface. He headed us straight to the spot. Unfortunately as we arrived the whale had just dived down, so we had to do a little more searching and waiting. Before long another one had surfaced by the boat, and we were straight back to see it. We spent about 10 minutes circling above it. Seeing it from the air gives you such an appreciation for how massive these animals are. To give you another quick fact, male sperm whales can grow to as long as 19 metres in length! We then flew further along the coast to find some dolphins, and again we were in luck. We managed to find a huge pod of dusky dolphins that were busy hunting fish. There were hundreds of them, absolutely hundreds and they were all swimming together in one huge pod.
Male Sperm Whale surfacing for air before diving back down to hunt.
Look closely, Dusky Dolphins, hundreds of them!
Our 30 minutes up we headed back to the runway for a smooth landing and a picture for the blog!
Thanks Anthony, what an awesome experience and all the best of luck in the future.
Thanks Anthony, what an awesome experience and all the best of luck in the future.
Flight over it was time for lunch, so we headed to the famous crayfish van just along the coast for a bbq’d fish lunch and a home packed picnic before we headed to the local seal colony. The seals lay all over the rocks, their camouflage is amazing, you could literally be just metres away from one and not realise it until it moved, they blend so well with the rocks. We watched one take a quick dip and then sit on a rock grooming itself in the sun, quite the poseur!
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Great lunch, great day, great picnic spot.
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For the trip back to Christchurch we took a further inland route so as to complete the ‘Alpine Triangle Drive’ that has amazing scenery of the mountains, plains and rivers. As we made our turn inland a young lad was stood alone with his thumb out on the side of the road. We stopped and asked where he was headed. Hanmer Springs was his answer, a 2 hour drive away and on our route, so we offered him a lift. Of course he was all too happy to accept. Clair jumped in the back with the kids and our new friend Clem climbed in the front. Clem is a 20 year old German kid who has been hitchhiking his way around Thailand, Australia and New Zealand since September. He had some great stories to share with us and told us the reason he quit his job to travel was to learn more about the world and experience real hard work. He has laboured on building sites, been a door to door salesman for a solar company, erected scaffolding, worked on farms and worked 24 hour shifts on fishing boats out of Sydney. Not only that, he is a fully qualified chemical engineer and was in a great job working for Nivea before he quit! The kid didn’t even have a tent! He was just going to rock up in Hanmer Springs, look for a hostel or ask a farmer to bunk in a barn. We got him as far as the turn off he needed then shook hands and waved goodbye. Wherever you end up Clem, good luck mate, you are clearly a very driven and level headed young man, it was a pleasure to meet you!
Our day was rounded off by finding out the good news that we had managed to book ourselves a weeks accommodation in February. We had joined a site called Helpx and had applied to a handful of farms to volunteer work for accommodation. We heard back from Sonia to say she had a 3 bedroom self contained cottage on site and that we could have that for a week in return for 4-5 hours work per day. The work will range from any kind of gardening, helping around the farm, herding cattle (sheep, deer and cows) and such like tasks. All seems pretty easy eh, oh the farm is only 3500 acres!!!!!
An actual picture from from Possum Farm, looks like our quad bike skills that Mike taught us in the Kangaroo Valley are going to be needed!
