The Beginning of an Epic Journey

January 25, 2011 marks the day when we first began driving on the wrong left side of the road.

Keeping with the theme of this entire around-the-world trip, we really haven’t done much planning about our road trip in New Zealand. Does this surprise you?

After picking up our old but trusty Nissan Bluebird, we decided to drive about three hours out of our way to spend a night at the oceanside town of Kaikoura. We know that we drove north just to turn around and head south the next day, but the drive and the destination were worth it.

A quick interjection: Mike is the chauffeur, and he has picked up the whole opposite-side driving thing quite quickly. Even Hanna agrees.

Kaikoura is an old whaling village that is now known as the spot to see whales and swim with dolphins. Due to our really extensive research, we thought you might be able to see these friendly creatures from the shore. After a quick visit to an information center, we soon found out that the only way to see whales and dolphins is by boat and will cost you…a lot. More than we were willing to spend. The ocean was looking a bit choppy, so after our Thai adventures, we decided to stick to land.

Luckily for us we were able to see many seals sunbathing. Even better? This was free.

Sunning Himself.

Napping Like His Friend Hanna.

The Kaikoura coastline is absolutely stunning, and it’s one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. (We feel like we will be saying that a lot in New Zealand. You‘ll be getting lots of superlatives this month.) The water was a magical shade of translucent turquoise, and no picture we took captured it exactly like it appeared.

Mountains and Coast.

Tidepools Galore.

Like a Postcard.

We used our tent Frank for the first time, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. (Well, take away the trains and cars that zoomed right by us throughout the night.) Our campsite for the night was right on the coast. We paid US $15 for a site complete with remarkably clean bathrooms, a kitchen, and seven seals that greeted us in the morning. Crazy that they were about a hundred feet from our tent door…