More Furry Seals and Dolphins too!

Mon., Feb 21 & Tues. Feb 22nd Cont'd:

Those brown blobs are all seals!

Fur seal babies playing in surf pools

After we went sea kayaking and were fully recovered, later in the afternoon we drove back north along the highway to a spot where you can see even more seals and a nice waterfall.  The area is called Ohau Point, and from the highway lookout you can see hundreds of fur seals below on the rocks and in the surf.  This is an active breeding colony, so we could see males, females and baby seals interacting in a pretty crowded area.  Took some video footage here, but don't have enough upload time to get it on the blog.  Sorry!

 

Ohau Waterfall

We stopped a little further and visited the Ohau Waterfall, accessible via a short 10 minute walk in from the highway pull-off area. Again, you walk through beautiful lush forest which brings you to a really pretty waterfall and pool below.  It's almost mystical in here, and for once, there weren't crowds of people sharing the same trail with us!  The information on the signs informed us that the Ohau Stream up to the waterfall is used by baby fur seals for shelter in the winter time while their mothers are feeding at sea.

The next day, Tuesday, we departed Kaikoura for Christchurch.  About half an hour south of Kaikoura, I was scanning the ocean for signs of whales, and suddenly saw what looked like large fish leaping out of the ocean.  Luckily there was a turnoff shortly ahead and we pulled off with some other cars.  Sure enough, they weren't fish - they appeared to be Hector's dolphins, a smaller dolphin found in this part of the world.  There were several large pods visible offshore, and with the help of the binoculars, we could see groups of them jumping and flipping over the water.  We watched them for 15 or 20 minutes or so, then moved on.  In a way, these dolphins delayed us from reaching downtown Christchurch for the earthquake, so thank you to the dolphins for being a distraction!!