Seal pups

Rain had been forecast for today but God blessed us with an absolutely beautiful morning to enjoy with Brendon. We headed up to picturesque Kaikoura to see the seal pups that spend their days at a waterfall slightly inland while their mothers are fishing at sea.
We were on the road by 8:30 and so by 10 it was time for morning tea and a leg stretch. We enjoyed some fruit and then the girls wanted to walk down to the river. So much fun can be had from just throwing stones.
:-)


By 11:20 we had found the spot and were on the walking track up to the waterfall. Immediately we were all so pleased to see seals playing in the stream. These two even seemed to turn to us in greeting.
This is a video of some of the pups heading up stream to the big pool. Lovely to see how they move.
The path moved away from the stream for a while but that did not mean we moved away from the seals. We met a few on the path on our way up.



Rachel was just thrilled. It was very interesting to note how different they looked when they were dry.





And then we arrived at the waterfall. It was amazing. This photo at least shows you how pretty the waterfall itself was.

What an experience.



There must be well over 30 seal pups in this pool. It was just wonderful to watch them.










It's also lovely that they are not scared of people and some are quite inquisitive.
It's just wonderful to be less than a meter from these beautiful creatures.
And watching them swim and play around was so special.
Rachel enjoyed standing very still and waiting to see if they would come closer.








She saw Dad putting his hand out for them to smell and decided to give that a try. That got the seal to come closer and give her a sniff.







Getting Hannah close.





And Ruth too. This on actually looked like he might walk right up to them.
We then had a snack and realized we had better eat quick as some of the seals looked really interested in what we had. This one came right up to Ruth.
So we moved around a bit and I ended up having the close visitor. It had actually moved away when Brendon took the camera from me. It was right up next to me.
Then it was time to go. On the way down we found a very friendly chap.






Rachel was thrilled at how close it wanted to get to her.

And even more thrilled when it decided to follow her as we left.
Just before we went back to the car we sat and watched the few that were at the bottom of the stream. It was nice that there were only 3 or 4 as we got to see some of the amazing ways that they move in the water (as well as their lovely dives out of the water).

I did not manage to get one of their high dives out of the water on video - but it was lovely to sit and watch them play.
We had a very special time with our very special girls. What a blessing today has been to us.


As always we enjoyed the stunning Kaikoura coast. We had lunch and then headed home. Subways for Mum and Dad and fish and chips for the girls.
I had so many photos and even after deleting many I still struggled to chose. So I have put them in quite small here but if you want to get a closer look just double click on the photo.