But wait .... THERE REALLY ARE responsibilities when one has planned a trip for 4 people, in advance. We received an email this morning that our rental in Wellington, which is 3 nights from now, is no longer available. "A family emergency" the email said ... with a referral to a place which is SUPER EXPENSIVE. And Wellington is the one town that we had challenges in finding a reasonably priced place to stay in, back when we planned all of this.
So .... the four of us got on our devices and began searching for a new place to stay in Wellington. Thank goodness that the only commitment we had made for the day was for Carrie and me to Swim With The Seals at 12:30.
After a couple of hours of searching, we sent some inquiries to places to rent, most of them about an hour north of Wellington, and crossed our fingers. We then enjoyed another delicious eggs and bacon breakfast (thank you Tony), and Carrie and I suited up for our Big Adventure ...
We walked about half a mile to cute downtown Kaikoura, ready for some Seal Action. It had become cloudy over the morning hours, which made the water still, which we thought was a good thing. Well .... as it turns out, seals don't like cloudy weather, so they don't get IN the water, which means we can't swim WITH them. We decided it wasn't worth the money to just look at seals (we both have done that), so we cancelled and the always easy Kiwi people didn't hesitate to give us a refund. So what are we to do next .... SHOP.
It actually was quite fun ~ and we were quite the scene I'm sure. Carrie is shopping while hanging onto her white motel towel and snorkel, and I have a blue water bag with my snorkel hanging out of it. We found some sweet shops with lovely people, and found some GONGA DEALS of silly jewelry and mix-match earrings. Thank goodness she brought HER credit card! We wrapped up our excursion with a glass of wine and an appetizer.
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| Gee ... WHAT A SURPRISE! |
But the next surprise was who showed up soon after ... our men looking for us trying to take us to lunch!
As it all played out, we went back to our place for showers and then had a LOVELY DINNER at the best seafood place in town; The Pier Hotel. Only about a mile from our place.
What a meal! What fresh seafood! What sunlight streamed onto our table! I actually had to change seats with Dennis two times because even with sunglasses, I couldn't see my food. Yeah .... call my eye sight old, but it was BRIGHT and DELICIOUS! (in the Maori language 'kai' means food, 'koura' means crayfish ... thus Kaikoura)
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| The picture with the CRAYFISH, MUSSELS and SEAFOOD CHOWDER was taken on Carrie's phone. Use your imagination ... |
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| Of course after dinner Carrie and I had to check out the beach by the hotel .... |
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| Happy Carrie |
We snuggled back into our place, and the weather turned a little chilly and windy. But that didn't stop me from sitting along the ocean and having fun with my camera. Unfortunately, none of the pictures will be purchased by National Geographic, nor will they be posted here, but I sure did have fun snapping away.
Everyone has been asleep for over an hour, but I am wound up. I'm sitting in front of our laptop on a small table in the corner, the keyboard lit by a really cool USB light, and listening to the waves moving as rhythmically as the snores from the two bedrooms. And I am a little fascinated by the cute bugs attracted to the monitor. They are actually quite relaxing to watch. I FEEL SO BLESSED to be here; it's hard to shut this down and go to sleep.
Because I do know .... I WILL NEVER PASS THIS WAY AGAIN.
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