Cook Straight

April 03, 2005

After my little stint in Wellington it was time to head south (well, east actually) to Picton on the South Island. My chosen transport was the Lynx ferry, part of Interislander cruises, and it provided me with a two-and-a-half hour cruise through the Cook Straight with some fantastic scenery along the way.
Once in Picton I had two or three hours to kill before my bus south to Kaikoura. This gave me just enough time to enjoy the Seahorse aquarium and the Edwin Fox museum.
I arrived at the aquarium just in time for a fish feeding session so got a bit of a guided tour of the displays, which included sharks, rays, sea horses (obviously) and one of only seven (I think) giant squid specimens on display in the world.
The squid was interesting as not much is known about them. What is known is that they live very deep in the ocean and form part of the diet of the Sperm whale, coincidentally a creature I was hoping to see something of in Kaikoura.
After the aquarium I popped next door to check out Edwin Fox, the ninth oldest ship in the world, the oldest surviving ship that transported British soldiers during the Crimean War, the oldest surviving wooden ship that transported convicts to Australia and immigrants to New Zealand. It was an interesting display and I even got to walk around inside the ship.
That filled my time nicely before I got the bus, which took a fantastic coastal road all the way down Kaikoura.