For the weekend I went up to Hamner Springs to do some mountain biking since the snow was less than good. We arrived friday night in the evening and made camp back in the woods and awoke in the morning to very cold temperatures and lots of frost but nothing that we couldn't handle! Mountain biking was awesome, very, very muddy which made it even more fun. We rode for 6 hours straight under the shadow of the towering snow capped peaks outside of Hamner, through dense wet rainforest and stands of redwood and lumber pine. So many fantastic trails; a bike club out of hammer builds and maintains them all. Afterwords we drove to Kaikoura where we set up camp on the beach and made a fire while we cooked dinner listening to the waves crash and the moon light up the snow capped peaks directly behind us rising 2600 meters into the sky. Woke up in the morning to a beautiful sunrise before packing up camp and heading out to the peninsula where we saw many birds, tide pools, seals by the 1000's and amazing scenery! That completed the weekend journey and we began the 2.5 hour south back to Christchurch.
Frost at camp in the morning in Hamner Springs
Mountain Biking!
My ride for the day!
Frosty!
Sunrise in Kaikoura at camp!
Talk about a legit spot!
White stoned beaches
Heading to the seal colony below the limestone cliffs on the outer edge of the peninsula
Tide Pools
Views from the top of the bluff looking back towards where we camped
Highest mountain is 2600 meters! Further up than inland...almost
Tide coming back in where we had walked earlier. We cut up to the steep hillside to the cliff ahead of time because we figured this would happen. Not too mention we wanted to see the views!
The Lighthouse, we were able to see it from our camping spot
Whale bones in war memorial park
Whale watching boats at harbor on south side of the peninsula
The Road Home
Next Weekend off to Queenstown or Temple Basin. A storm is tracking through as we speak, rain here = snow up there so fingers are crossed for a powder day this weekend. Hopefully enough to buck some cliffs but we will see!
Cheers!
