New Zealand’s a country that’s full of incredible scenery, but Kaikoura really stands out. The whole area is gorgeous, seamlessly transitioning from a dramatic mountain range to the stunning turquoise ocean, creating a unique setting. The peaks can be seen from all over town, as well as providing a sensational backdrop to many of the beaches. Simply strolling along the harbour or driving along the coastal road is a delight, and that’s before you’ve delved into the underwater world.
Beyond the obvious draw cards of excellent whale, dolphin and seal watching, you’ll also find one of the best day hikes on the South Island, beautiful bays brimming with birdlife, great seafood and even a craft brewery.
We’re sharing all the best things to do in Kaikoura to help you plan the perfect trip.
-
1: Fly over whales
2: Climb up the spectacular Mt Fyffe
3: Meet the hundreds of resident seals
4: Catch a sunset from South Bay
5: Wander the secluded bays
6: Marvel at some of the world’s most acrobatic dolphins
7: Start your day with a gorgeous sunrise from the beach
8: Brush up on local history at the Kaikoura Museum
9: Try the local catch
10: Check out the view from the Kaikoura Lookout
11: Explore the house built on whale bones
12: Kick back at Kaikoura’s best cafe
13: Sample the local craft beer
14: Go stargazing
The best things to do in Kaikoura
1. Fly over whales!
Kaikoura is famous for its year round resident sperm whales and there are a couple of different ways you can spot them. The first is the standard boat tour you’ll find everywhere in the world and the second is something a bit special, by scenic flight.
Having done many boat trips we opted to fly. Not only does a flight offer a bit of wow factor, but it also works well for covering a large area in a much shorter space of time than is possible by boat.
On the 40 minute fixed wing plane trip we saw two sperm whales, over a hundred dusky dolphins and a few seals and albatross too. It’s a unique experience and offers the chance to get some idea of the scale of those huge sperm whales.
A word of advice though, if you suffer from motion sickness take the helicopter trip. It’s more expensive but I’ve done it before and you won’t get sick, whereas the small planes bank in order to give you great angles for photos, so you can end up feeling a little green.
If you’re all good in small planes then they offer better value.
In terms of photography, obviously you’re further away than on a boat, so your photos will be at a distance. However, I’d still pick flying every time for the sheer novelty value.
If you want more details, you can read our full review here.
How to snag a deal
We’ve found that the cheapest way to book Wings Over Whales is with BookMe - New Zealand’s discount tour site. When we visited, we were able to get up to a 50% discount on some of the tours (this is subject to change, so make sure you scroll through their calendar for the best rate).
Compare prices below:
2. Climb the spectacular Mount Fyffe
Hiking up to the top of Mount Fyffe is no easy feat, but it’s also not technical in any way. It’s a 18km well maintained hiking path all the way to the summit, and getting to the top just requires a bit of perseverance.
Your reward is one of the most glorious views on the South Island, with towering snow-capped mountains on one side and gorgeous coastline on the other.
It’s a jaw-dropping sight and we didn’t have to share it with anyone else! You can even make it into an overnighter and stay at the cute little hut which is 2/3 of the way up. Catching a sunset and stargazing here is very memorable.
You can read all the details in our in-depth guide to the Mt Fyffe hike.
3. Meet the hundreds of resident seals
Hanging out with the seals was one of my favourite things to do in Kaikoura, so much so that we did it several times. There are hundreds and hundreds of them in quite a few different locations, but two in particular stand out for sheer quantity.
Point Kean is the closest to the town centre and is the best spot in my opinion. You need to follow the rocks round to the right of the car park and along the pathway for roughly 400m before you come to the main colony (you might see a few before this but not hundreds).
From here they are everywhere you look. Sticking to the 10m away rule can be difficult simply because the seals are lolling wherever they please, including on the trail.
Watch out for the bushes too as sometimes you’ll hear a grunt followed by an alarming sound of a huge seal loping towards you! Do keep as much distance as possible as they can give you a nasty nip.
The second best place is Ohau Point. Here you are viewing them from above and it allows you to observe them in peace without having to check your distance. It’s a 20 minute drive from town along a scenic stretch of coast. If you are lucky enough to be able to visit Kaikoura in winter you will likely also see pups here.
4. Catch a sunset from South Bay
Kaikoura has several great sunset spots but South Bay is our top pick (aside from the summit of Mount Fyffe!). You can watch the sun set behind the mountains right from the beach and it’s always incredibly peaceful.
You can go for a sunset stroll or sit at one of the perfectly placed picnic benches.
It’s just a five minute drive from town, yet your likely to share it only with the seabirds and if you’re lucky one of the endangered dotterels that call this area home.
5. Wander the secluded bays
You could opt to stroll the whole 12km Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway, but much of it follows the road (albeit with ocean views).
Instead we prefer a section of the track which starts by visiting a series of secluded bays, by the time you pass Point Kean you’ll leave any crowds behind and get to enjoy several unspoilt beaches to yourself.
There are some smaller seal colonies along the way too.
You can then continue onto South Bay or return to Point Kean along the cliff tops which offers excellent views of both the beaches and mountains. It’s an easy walk with just a couple of short uphill sections and well maintained paths.
We detail the route, which is all on proper walking track away from the road in this post.
6. Marvel at some of the world’s most acrobatic dolphins
Kaikoura is known for its giant pods of dusky dolphins which love to play and perform for their crowds of admirers.
Dusky dolphins are known to be some of the most acrobatic in the world and their giant numbers make Kaikoura an unbeatable dolphin watching (or swimming) destination.
The dolphins from our Wings Over Whales trip
As mentioned earlier we saw one of these ginormous pods on the whale watching flight, which was lucky because we had one of the very rare incidents where the boat tour couldn’t find the dolphins.
It’s such a rarity that despite seeing two dolphins and two whales, everyone on board received almost all the money back, paying just $20 for the three hour trip.
We got very unlucky so we’d still highly recommend this trip, all the other reviews we read were people seeing anyway between 100 and 400 dolphins and hopefully one day we’ll get a second chance.
For this reason, just in case, we recommend booking the dolphin encounter as early as possible in your trip in case you need to go out again (unlikely but better to be safe than sorry!).
Dolphins from our whale watching flight
How to book your Dolphin Encounter
We booked our Dolphin Trip through BookMe - which offered the best deal for the trip (they also refunded us when we didn’t see many dolphins, so you will have that peace of mind). There are two options - the swimming with dolphins trip or just watching.
You can sometimes get up to 50% off (this is subject to change, so make sure you scroll through the calendar to check). You can check out their prices below:
8. Start your day with a gorgeous sunrise from the beach
Start your day right with a beautiful sunrise over the ocean at Mangamaunu beach. The stony beach is gorgeous, backed by those spectacular mountains and there tends to be some decent waves too for added drama.
It’s incredibly serene and if you share the experience with anyone at all it’s likely to be the odd surfer or landscape photographer.
To get to the beach you can pull over onto a gravel parking area on the side of Highway 1 and cross over the train tracks and walk for 30 seconds down the bank and onto the shore. The parking area is literally opposite the beach.
8. Brush up at local history at the Kaikoura Museum
If you love learning a little local history when you travel then head to the Kaikoura Museum. It’s quite an eclectic mix of exhibits, taking you through the area’s history and flora and fauna.
There’s everything from an old prison cell, to a fully restored cabin from an 1886 shipwreck, a collection of old Moa bones and lots on Kaikoura’s whaling history.
If you like to know a little bit about everything then this museum is for you! There’s also a small exhibition on the 2016 earthquake which lasted just two minutes but rocked the very foundations of the town.
9. Try the local catch
The word Kaikoura literally means ‘eat crayfish’ in Maori and there are plenty of places to make it happen. Our top pick was somewhere I’d been to with my family years ago, Nin’s Bin food truck (near Ohau Point) but it was sadly closed on our most recent visit. There is another seafood truck by Point Kean as well as several restaurants in town.
Be warned though that whilst it’s abundant it’s not a cheap option, menus might say starting at $25 for a half but we never saw less than $40 in reality (it’s all done by weight)!
If you don’t want to splash out on a cray then there are plenty of other fish options with my fave being the blue cod.
If you eat at one of the vans you can sit beside the ocean as they have picnic tables, or if you grab a takeaway from town you can drive a couple of minutes over to the picnic benches at South Bay, just watch out for the pesky seagulls!
10. Check out the view from Kaikoura Lookout
Kaikoura Lookout is another excellent sunset spot offering an expansive view over the ocean, Kaikoura Ranges and rolling farmland.
The view is staggering and would be our top sunset pick if not for one little blip: the power lines. They are right the way across half the view which seems like sacrilege to me!
Despite this, it’s still very much worth seeing and there are several benches and a picnic table to sit and relax at. After a while you stop noticing the power lines and can just enjoy the view.
You can drive right up to the lookout, which is just five minutes from town.
11. Explore a house built on whale bones
Fyffe House is Kaikoura’s oldest surviving building and all that remains of the old whaling station built in 1884. The colonial cottage is built on whale bones, some of which can be seen on the front verandah.
Unfortunately for us we arrived to find that it was closed for renovation, so we can’t tell you much about the inside, only that the building’s and inhabitants stories are told through artefacts and audio tales, and there is still plenty of the old furniture inside.
It looks like it would be pretty fascinating and we’d love to hear if you visit!
12. Kick back at Kaikoura’s best cafe
We didn’t expect to find a cafe like Bean Me Up in Kaikoura. It feels much more like somewhere you’d find in an inner city laneway.
The decor is eclectic and the relaxed vibe feels more like you’ve been invited into a very quirky living room.
The menu is small but everything we tried was good, shout out to nans relish in the toasties! Coffee was good, actually our second fave in town, but the cafe had by far the best food and we loved the quirky vibe.
13. Sample the local craft beer
Pop into Emporium Brewing and sample one of the local craft beers. Currently there is no official tasting (that’s in the works) but you can buy a selection of bottles or fill up a bigger bottle (some were over 1 litre big!). Joe tried the Pilsner and highly recommends it.
Surprisingly they also have mini golf and two escape rooms onsite which both get rave reviews although we didn’t personally try them out!
14. Go stargazing
You might not associate Kaikoura with stargazing, and nor did we before hiking down from Mount Fyffe after sunset and being in awe of the phenomenal night sky. And when we say phenomenal we mean as good as Aoraki Mount Cook which is a Dark Sky Reserve.
We could see the Milky Way and the core with such clarity we couldn’t actually believe it.
You don’t have to hike up Mt Fyffe to see the incredible stars though, anywhere on the periphery of town is still good, obviously they’ll be some light pollution but generally not much. Try Kaikoura Lookout or around Point Kean (it’s reasonably far from the light of the town).
There’s actually talk of Kaikoura becoming a Dark Sky Reserve so watch this space!
A note on Kaikoura’s tours
Kaikoura has a lot of marine tours and trying to figure out the best ones can be a little confusing. Although we’ve tried to help you out by writing about the ones we chose to do, we couldn’t do all of them. What we found from personal experience and asking around was that you will quite often see many different types of wildlife on all the tours, but each tour focuses on one more than the others.
For example, our whale watching flight focused on whales but we also saw dolphins, seals and albatross. The dolphin tour was primarily seeking out dolphins but we also saw whales and albatross, so you should pick the tour with the focus on the animal you want to spend most time with and then hope you see others too.
We picked whales and dolphins because the seals are abundant everywhere and we didn’t see the need to pay for a specific tour, whereas we never saw whales or dolphins from land.
You can check out all the tours in Kaikoura through BookMe and GetYourGuide below:
Where to stay in Kaikoura
Kaikōura Peaks Boutique Motel
We stayed at Kaikoura Peaks Motel and it was one of the best of our trip. It’s pretty different to your average motel with care taken in decorating and adding homely touches. There’s also a well equipped kitchen with hob (2 rings) and a small oven (the plug in kind). You can see the mountains from the window and the wifi worked really well. It’s right in town but very quiet.
We had two small niggles which wouldn’t stop us staying again, the water pressure on full heat wasn’t amazing and the sinks didn’t drain perfectly but overall we were really happy!
You can check out the reviews and prices on:
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, that we will earn a small commission if you click through and decide to make a purchase. This helps towards the costs of running our website. Thanks for your support!
