Rus and I were supposed to go up to Kaikoura (about two hours North) on Saturday night.  The plan was to drive up, find a place for dinner, set up the tent at the camp site, and relax before Sunday’s activities. However, by the time Rus was finished with work and it was time to pick up the rental car, a huge storm was raging - bringing torrential downpours and tropical storm-force winds.  Our packs were ready to go, but the weather was terrible (in Forrest Gump rain terms, it was “rain that came in sideways”), so we opted to go in the morning.

Saturday night we made dinner and chilled so we could get an early jump on the trip in the morning.

By the time we woke up on Sunday around 7:30AM, the sun was shining brightly and warmly, and there was not a cloud in site.   Everything smelled so fresh!   We ate breakfast, packed up the car, and were on our way.  The trip up to Kaikoura is straight up the coast on State Highway 1 (a two-lane highway) and is so stunning!  It was hard to believe there was an optional “Scenic Route” (which I think is redundant); we decided we would take on the way home.

We first drove through Waipara wine region, where we had been wine-tasting a few weeks prior.  Then we hit patches of rural grazing areas - lots of deer and horses and sheep (of course).  We stopped in a tiny town called Cheviot for a coffee, then jumped back in the car for the rest of the journey.  We drove up into the mountains, on roads that dropped off hundreds of metres into deep valleys.  Trees and heavy vegetation covered these mountains, and the sight of it all was simply spectacular.  Once again, except for the odd power line or farm shack, this scenery was virtually untouched.  There did, however, seem to be “more traffic than usual”, i.e. we saw several cars on the trip.

Eventually we made our way to the top of hill and a glorious view of the sea awaited us.  The sun was glistening off the azure water.  The rocky coast and mountains in the background, in contrast, were dark.  It was like a living postcard!

We winded our way back down the mountains to near-sea level; the road, at this point, traced the coastline.  The waves in the ocean were large from the storm that had passed and crashed against the rocks in giant splashes.  I could not get over the color of the water - simply beautiful!  With the fresh, salty breeze and the warm sun, it was going to be a great day!

We continued winding, passing by several scenic lookouts where others stopped to take pictures.  We went through short mountain tunnels and alongside a train track which we knew continued North into another area we have yet to visit - Marlborough (one of our future trips involves taking same coastal train to Marlborough with our bikes and biking to visit several of the 30+ vineyards there).

Several kilometres down the road and we found our campsite, Peketa. We stopped into the office to book a tent site and found a spot that would be suitable.  The campsite is right off the beach in the grassy dunes (no sand).  Walk a few metres, and the rocky beach and ocean waves await.  There were no other tents around us at the time. We gathered damp driftwood and left it on an old picnic table to dry in the sun; we would use it to build a fire later.  Looking out into the ocean, not far off from the breakers was a small pod of dolphins.  I was getting excited!

At this time, it was getting close to our scheduled time to swim with the dolphins, so we made our way to Encounter Kaikoura to check in!