A place where crayfish and whale watching are king

After leaving Picton and staying in Blenheim for a night, the cats were packed up and it was back in the car heading south and down along the Kaikōura coast towards Christchurch for another night's stay before the final leg to Oamaru. It came up fast that hard striking view of stark hills before the view of a rugged and earthquake affected coastline appeared on the horizon and the tourists with it.

There's nothing about this coastline that's less than striking, brooding and a reminder Mother Nature is never predictable. The waves were crashing hard on the rocks uplifted from the last major earthquake and I was driving on roads that had been completely rebuilt after being thrown into the ocean. This coastline was once a place where my tupuna came and hunted moa and when that food supply ran out they were gather moana kai provided by Tangaroa to keep them well-fed. 

As the journey continued towards Kaikōura township I spotted a rest area and a lot of interesting plantings of coastal native species. There in amongst the growth was a whale oil rendering pot commonly found at coastal whaling stations nationwide. Thanks to this industry we nearly lost all of our whale species. Commercial hunting has ceased now tourists go out on boats to view them. Either way, and it's just my own opinion, cetacean species pay the price for human activity no matter what form. Sadly it's the way -- suddenly the natural world is only worth something if it has an economic value. My own ancestor killed whales from Moeraki further south on the east coast. Back then everything had a commercial value and the ocean, rivers and forests paid the price for it. They still are. As for whaling in Kaikōura I had a quick look up in Wikipedia and it mentions the Fyffe operation.

A whaling station was first established by Robert Fyffe in 1842 at Kaikōura. The Fyffe family was the first European family to settle in Kaikōura. John Guard and his family joined Fyffe sometime between 1844 and 1846. 40 men were employed at the whaling station initially. In 1845, he purchased a second whaling station at South Bay. This second whaling station (Fyffe's Village) became the commercial centre of Kaikōura until 1867. Fyffe diversified into shipping and farming due to the decline in whale numbers. Robert Fyffe died in 1854 and his cousin George Fyffe took over the whaling business and lived at Fyffe House. The Marlborough Express newspaper commented in 1866 that "whales seemed to have abandoned coming to Kaikōura". The whaling stations continued until 1922.

 

Barraud, William Francis 1850-1926 :Whaler's whare, Kaikoura / W. F. Barraud

Farming and commercial fishing replaced the whaling boats and later mana whenua came together and started the whale watching tours when the area was on the brink of economic ruin. None came blame them either for coming up with an innovative idea that caught on and now is a huge commercial success. It showed in the township when we dropped in to get a feed of fish and chips. Kaikōura is definitely a tourist town that's for certain: that didn't matter. It's a nice coastal settlement and worth the visit. 

That's me for another post I'm still processing it all this massive shift south into the unknown. It's rather epic I think.