Kaikoura

The Kaikoura ranges from the motel

Up this morning to a fine, crisp day.  I get up and look out across the bay and the view is almost too good to be true.   Kaikoura is beautiful - not just the coastline and the mountains, but also some of the old buildings that remain.  Do the people who live here know how lucky they are?

Art deco cinema

All I know is that, although everyone here is  quiet and friendly and welcoming, there is  apparently another side to it.  At the peak of the tourist season the town is packed out by tourists and travellers and young people back-packing and - coming from a tourist area myself - I know how that tips the balance of a place.  So, perhaps I wouldn't like to be here in summer.   The day I arrived, the old courthouse - one of the few historic wooden buildings in Kaikoura - was a smouldering ruin, still being damped down by the fire brigade, having been set on fire during the previous night, probably by vandals.  Now, very little of it remains.   So even paradise has its problems.

All that's left of the District Courthouse

Still thinking about whales.  It wasn't a romantic experience yesterday, but sobering.  It made me think a lot about how we interact with our fellow mammals on the planet, and a lot of what I thought was uncomfortable.

Pub in Kaikoura