We had breakfast and chilled out on the boat, until we neared Picton when I went up on deck to see the views. It was incredible, we were sailing in bright sunshine but yet the hills and mountains surrounding the Queen Charlotte Sound were shrouded in a low cloud apart from their peaks which were also in bright sunshine.
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| Queen Charlotte Sound |
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| The cloud covering half of the sound |
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| Amazing clouds on Queen Charlotte Sound |
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| Arrival in Picton |
Once on dry land we drove straight through Picton, continuing still down State Highway 1 to Blenheim where we stopped briefly. We drove a little further through Marlborough's wine country with snow-capped mountains in the far distance onto Kekerengu where we had lunch next to the beach.
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| Drive through cloud capped hills |
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| Marlborough region |
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| Coastal view from the road |
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| Beautiful countryside |
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| The mountains hiding behind the clouds |
After lunch the drive was right next to the shoreline and we saw hundreds of seals basking. Our next stop was at Ohau Lookout point and waterfall walk. The walk took us slightly inland to a waterfall where there were loads of seal pups playing at the base of the falls. It was amazing!!
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| The coastal drive |
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| A seal which we nearly trod on |
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| Seals playing in the water at the base of the falls |
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| The waterfall |
The lookout looked out onto the rocks where there were hundreds of seals basking in the sun, playing, swimming and climbing up the shore. You do not notice them all at first as they look like rocks but one by you start to pick out the seals.
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| How many seals? |
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| Seals basking |
On arrival in Kaikoura we wandered the cute little town and booked two special trips for tomorrow!
close encounters of the seal kind
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