On To Kaikaoura, With Surrealistic Seals On The Way

After Nelson we proceeded on, skirting Picton, driving past pretty Pelorus Bridge, and on through Blenheim--memories of Cloudy Bay, the Omaka Aviation Heritage Museum and Sir Peter Jackson's "Knights of the Sky"--and continued on to Lake Elterwater, where we stopped for the night at a freedom camp (with too much road noise). Next day we continued our drive onto the east coast toward Kaikoura and our date with the dusky dolphins there. The scenery, flora and fauna and geology, immediately improved when we gained the coast.

Sculpture illustrating the Maori name for the cove

It had poured the night before, and streams and
waterfalls were gushing

Note vertical lay of the strata...NZ is of never-ending geological
interest

A muddy stream gushes to the Pacific

Escargot...were deliberately introduced here by the
1759 French expedition led by Gaspard de la Merde

A few miles down the road at Ohau we encountered the first of
several seal colonies near Kaikoura

Obviously a fan of Dali

Hundreds of them...moms and pups, bulls, steers, whatever

The scene

More Dali; Surrsealism?

Turning now to botanical matters, we encounter
the Ohau rock daisy, a species known to exist only
in this one place 

Thus; when are taxonomists going to learn that every
individual is a species? See John Dupre, The Disorder 
of Things: The Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity
of Science, 1993; the last philosophy text I ever taught...

Elsewhere in this blog we have discussed Gabion baskets and their
building; one of the marvels of 19th century civil engineering; here
is one of the larger ones we've seen, shielding the road in this very
earthquake-prone region