Kaikura-been there, done that

Today, we finaly accomplish mission kaikura, aka to eat crayfish! crayfish aka lobster!

Early in the morning, we were told that the weather would be wet for the day, and indeed it was! :(

We walked across to the south bay via some walking trek. There wasn't much to see as the bays were all similar. We had some homemade (well, backpacker inn's made to be accurate) sandwiches we brought along, now that we are really broke. And while we started munching on our lunch, some seagulls started flocking in around us one after another. And at one point there were 9 of them eyeing our food earnestly. Like we would share our food with them!

sea gulls at the seal colony

And then we saw 3 pigs for the very first time in since we arrived in NZ on our way back. Perhaps they could smell the bacon and cheese sandwich we just had, they hadn't been thrilled to see us.

hog encounter

classic cows on hill

As we planned to hitch hike back to Chrisstchurch tomorrow, we went to check out the hitching point. Little did we know we would have the toughest luck ever in hitch hiking tomorrow. There were taletell sign where the hitch hikers left graffiti notes on the lamp post but we didn't notice until we were waiting like forever at the very same point the next day.

Anyway, after we got back to the other side of the bay, we walked to Beach Rd to find a seafood shop I saw on one of the flyers at the backpacker's inn that was supposed to have cheap and fresh seafood. The shop name was Crayfish & Cod, located at 81, Beach Road.


Indeed the price was much affordable. A whole crafish at restaurant range from NZ$60+ - $80+. And the stall we passed by yesterday on our way to the walking trek was NZ$42 for the smallest one. We bought one weighted about 400g+ at NZ$33+, and happily carried the precious back to cook ourselves a sumptious dinner at our backpackers. We picked a bottle of white wine to go with the crayfish and some packet mushroom rice. We decided to go all out by adding another half dozen of mussle to make Paella with the mushroom rice. That was the most luxurious meal we had after we were broke, thanks to my little plastic card.
While we were cooking, our fellow backpackers mates were almost drowned in their own drool and jealousy :D We pan fried the crayfish in butter and garlic, with a dash of white wine. And the Mussle-mushroom paella did the wonder to fill us up just nice. Hmm.... yummy!

mussles

After the meal, we chill out at the lounge over the wine and a series of movie marathon. We watched part of the cheesy Indian Jones, American Pie: The Wedding, Friends (the episode with Brad Pitt as guest star while he was still with Jennifer), and Lost. It was totally laid back and relaxing.


Although we did not do much activities in Kaikura due to our budget constrain, I still think it's a nice little town to have a relaxing stay. If budget allow, it would have been a nice place to surf, dive, and of course to go for it's ever famous whale-watching. But I met a guy at our dorm who said he had bad sea-sick the whole time and he didn't really get a good look at the whale. Poor soul! Others who absolutely recommend the activities told us how amazingly close the boat can get to the whale and you can only see a small portion of the whale because you were so close already! Next time, I tell myself. Well, there were so many more things to do and places to see in NZ I know I won't get bored visiting this lovely country again and again.