Flexible Travel, Seals and Crayfish

After we did our hike along the Paparoa, we put our next destination into the GPS. We were supposed to go through Arthur’s Pass and camp at a DOC site on the other side. The problem was there was a big scrub fire that was spreading rapidly, and so the road was closed. Hmmm. 

So we chose another route toward Christchurch. This one took us north, then east. Bad news. That way was closed because of flooding… 

Luckily, our on our third try we found a way through and changed our campsite booking to Hanmer Springs. We liked it so much that we stayed for two nights.

Not much happened here. We did some schoolwork, some laundry, explored some fairy houses in a nearby park. Oh, and Tom had an e-bike accident on some loose gravel and tore up his elbow and leg a bit. He’s fine, but he would need a new rain jacket. 

Then we said goodbye to our RV and wondered if it was a mistake to not book it for the whole six weeks of exploring New Zealand. 

However, on our first night post RV-life we had booked an adorable cottage in Kaikoura. It had a yard. The property had chickens, goats, and llamas. There was a playground and two cute dogs that ran free. There was a garden that I could help myself to and the owners had left us farm eggs, homemade jam and fresh bread. 

Turns out, we didn’t miss the RV after all. 

In the morning we went exploring the area and found the local seal colony. 

Then we hiked to an overlook. It was gorgeous here.

Tom's arm is bandaged from his biking accident.

We had booked a whale watching tour, however, it was canceled because of rough sea conditions. We were only a tiny bit bummed because we had been very busy up to this point, so no one really minded the cancellation. 

Plus, this gave us a chance to head to Nin’s Bin, a restaurant recommendation from some church friends from Lynchburg, the Lesniak's. They warned us that the ‘restaurant’ was little more than a stall on the side of the road, and it was only open until it fan of our fresh fish for the day.

We found Nin’s Bin was about 20 minutes north of Kaikoura and it was indeed some of the best seafood we had eaten.

The menu was small. Crayfish (which was a rock lobster) served hot or cold, Fried fish and Whitebait Patties.

Whitebait was something we had seen a few times, but had yet to try. We were curious, but whenever we enquired, the person preparing it seemed to enjoy showing us the “before” version.

This looked like gray worms with eyes in a shallow pool of egg wash. They would fry it and then serve it on basic white bread. No salt, no pepper, no butter. Just fried whitebait. We hadn’t tried it yet.

But Nin’s Bin seems like the real deal. So we ordered the Crayfish and a Whitebait patty. We didn’t bother with the fried fish because had had fish and chips about a hundred times already and thought, “how good could it be?” 

Nin brought us the order to the picnic table overlooking the rocky surf. We dove in and loved the Crayfish so much the kids ran up to tell her. She then brought us some of her fried fish “on the house.”

The fish was hands down the best we had ever had. So good, so light, so flaky, perfectly fried fish. 

The Whitebait patty was ... probably as good as it was going to be ...

Afterwards, we took Nin’s recommendation to visit another seal colony further north. This one was even bigger than what we had seen earlier. We spent a good 30 minutes making Nat Geo commentary on all the activity we saw, most of which seemed aggressive. It was loads of fun!

Then we headed on to Picton and our last night on the South Island.