|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Here is a poster of various marine animals. Notice that the Orca (killer whale) is the "largest member of the dolphin family." Cool. Orcas are dolphins. Various pictures of the dorm room where we stayed. More pictures to give you a feel for the Lochmara Lodge. Dave, Mike, Buzzy, and Jules prepare to go for their Sea Kayakking journey through the Marlborough Sounds. And they're off! I don't know what became of them. Before they returned from their journey, Fenny and I left Picton to go to Kaikoura. I assume all is well, since I've spoken to Azzer since then and he didn't say anything devastating had happened to them. Buzzy and Dave may have some pictures from the journey. As we were leaving Picton, it was said that the ferries had been cancelled because of nasty weather. Although things looked fine in Picton, apparently Cook Strait (between Wellington and Picton) was quite choppy. As we rode the bus down the coast toward Kaikoura, we noticed the waves were quite high and, in fact, they'd washed up over the road in certain spots. I tried to take good pictures of the waves to give you the idea of how high they were. These rocks you see are several metres in height, so you should understand how choppy the ocean was. It was because of this storm that hit the east coast of the South Island that all the whale watching and dolphin swimming was cancelled in Kaikoura. This made Kaikoura a rather bland town. But again, this is the main point of vacations and holidays: to be bored and relaxed so that when San Francisco beckons, you'll be rested and ready. I just keep trying to show you how nasty it was. At last we arrived in Kaikoura. We called our hosts at the Sunrise Lodge and they drove us out to the hostel which really wasn't too far from town. These are pictures of the hostel. It was clean, it was nice. Fenny and I both thought it was a good place to stay. I went to the beach which was only 20 or 30 metres from the Sunrise Lodge to take some pictures of the mountains in the distance. I took many pictures because it was so beautiful, and I wanted at least a couple of them to turn out good. I'm pretty pleased with these images. To me, they look almost like paintings: realistic, but unreal. I can't put my finger on it. What is the quality that makes them look like paintings, not photographs? And am I the only one that feels this way about them? Ah... Kaikoura! The same mountains as photographed off the beach, near the railroad tracks that ran past the hostel. |
|
|
