Kaikoura was a small town in the 1980’s, the economy driven by fishing and farming with a couple of caravans parked up north of the township selling crayfish. To take a step back further in time and the staple of the economy was whaling which continued up to as late as 1964. It is a place of raw energy, the Pacific Ocean crashing in with large swell from deep south making it a Mecca for surfers with locations such as the Meatworks and Mangamanu which the locals say rate up there the worlds great surf spots although you need to be a hardy soul or own a very good wetsuit because the water is none too warm with some cool currents running up the coast.

To take a step further back again Maori moa hunters inhabited the peninsula 900 years ago and with the abundant sea life, it would have been a great place to live and there is a number of Pa sites in the area.  The Maori legend of the Kaikoura Peninsula is the place that  Maui placed his foot on the Kaikoura peninsula to steady himself while he fished-up the North Island

The early 1990’s was a time of diversify or disappear for small town New Zealand with many farmers not being able to adapt to the withdrawal of government subsidies. Something had to be done and with such diverse sea life off the coast because of converging currents and the Hikurangi Trench which is a result of the meeting of the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates. Whales live here, sperm whale adolescent males in particular who feed on the abundance of giant squid which reside in the deep waters. These males are feeding up and building up strength to go breeding in the north. They are there all the time unless some females are swimming past and they are going to check them out.

Whalewatch  is owned and operated by the indigenous Kati Kuri people of Kaikoura, a Maori sub-tribe of the South Island's larger Ngai Tahu Tribe. They set it up in 1987 when the town was in search for something to take them into the new millennium and it has been a great success. Like most businesses of its kind, it started small but now they have a fleet of boats heading out daily (weather permitting) to the whales habitat using high tech machinery to find the whales.

This was the start of something big for Kaikoura with other entrepreneurs realising the amazing attraction just off the coast and other businesses like Encounter Kaikoura who run trips to see and swim with the dolphins which are plentiful and the pelagic tours looking at albatross and other seabirds who frequent the area .  It is a locally owned business and the partners involved in Dolphin Encounter  are Ian Bradshaw, Dennis and Lynette Buurman. They are now have a Green Globe 21 accreditation and are a well renown ecotourism business.

The growth of these businesses has brought tourists to the area and they are staying more than the one night that they would have in the past and will stay and do some of the great activities, eat at the local restaurants and do walks like the recently revamped coastal walkway which overlooks the end of the Kaikoura Peninsula with great ocean views, seals on the rocks and interpretation panels to enhance the experience.

 

Kaikoura has really embraced the image of being a clean green town and is in fact the first town to have the council become Green Globe 21 accredited. This involves many aspects of the town like rubbish disposal and carbon footprint monitoring. There are also initiatives like Trees for Travellers which creates an opportunity for tourists who have travelled far Kaikoura to plant trees to absorb the carbon used to get there. This programme focuses on not just the planting of the trees but also ensuring they survive to maturity by clearing weeds from around the base when they are young.

Overall the town has really transformed itself to be a busy destination where people can live happily and there are some local tourism, hospitality and other jobs available to keep people living there and not leaving for the bigger centers.  It has a vibrant and there is the strong feeling of being on the edge of a great and powerful ocean and it is at the base of the Seaward Kaikoura mountain range including Mount Fyffe and Mt Manakau, there are very few locations in the world where you go from such deep oceans to considerable mountains in such a short distance which is very obvious when you are on a boat looking back at the land, the mountains seem to rise straight out of the sea.

I recommend a visit, it has a welcoming feel with lots to do and many spots to do very little and ponder the surrounding beauty.

Author: Geoff Button