Kiakoura

From April 7, 2010

Jack’s brother Dick, wife Becky and son Cameron came to New Zealand to visit. We had not been to Kiakoura so we went on a road trip. Kiakoura (ky-core-a) is located on the coast about three hours north of Christchurch. There are several seal colonies there and we were not disappointed. The first beach we went to, the seals were lying around, resting, and you could go right up to them. There were several on rocks but some in the grassy areas. It seemed like a “no brainer” to me…sleep on rocks, sleep on grass. The only thing we could figure was that maybe the rocks were warm. I took a picture of a seal sleeping on his back, which couldn’t be comfortable. As I was walking around, I saw the most unusual rock with tentacles coming out. You would see seaweed floating on the water. I took a picture of the rock because it showed how the seaweed roots cling to the rock for support. Talk about Medusa…
We drove about 10 K’s north to another seal colony. We were a bit farther away but still got a close-up view of several hundred seals…mostly moms and little kids. I took a movie of the little seals playing in a pool made by the ocean receding at low tide. It was amazing to me how they could chase each other over the rocks so well with just their flippers. There are amazing creatures on this earth.