The coastal charm of Kaikōura

Novelist and screenwriter Sarah-Kate Lynch shares her long-time love of Kaikōura, and why its natural beauty and resilient community inspired her hit TV show. 

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” This immortal line from US President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration speech was not something I specifically had in mind when I first visited Kaikōura back in 2017, but I felt the sentiment nonetheless.  

After an action-packed 2 days that involved watching whales in a chopper, swimming with dolphins, quad-biking on a cliff edge, gorging on crayfish, walking the peninsula and communing with the good folk of this North Canterbury town, I felt like Kaikōura had given me so much, and I wanted to give something back.  

It’s not a feeling a travel writer gets about every town, but there’s more than a little magic in the air here, so the thinking cap was thus firmly applied.  

At the time, the town was celebrating State Highway 1 reopening after the devastating earthquake of 2016, which saw Kaikōura cut off for a year. But were the townsfolk moaning and whining? No, they were not. There had been trauma, for sure, but there was a ‘business as usual’ attitude bouncing off the snow-capped mountains, and there were laughs too. One shop owner recounted fleeing her house when the quake hit – sadly, without her teeth.  

Picture perfect location 

It took several more trips and 6 years (pandemic included), but in April of 2023, I arrived back in Kaikōura with a crew of more than 50 to shoot ‘Friends Like Her’, the 6-part television drama I had written to showcase this beautiful, resilient part of the world. 

Luckily, the show was a ratings hit when it first screened on Three, and again when it hit Netflix earlier this year. The town, those ranges, the way they melt down through green paddocks to the Pacific: There’s no doubt that Kaikōura itself is very much a star of the show. 

An easy hour-and-a-half drive from Blenheim (or 2-and-a-half from Christchurch), I spent 5 weeks while we were filming at the Waterfront Apartments, which I loved, but have stayed several times at The White Morph, also on the town’s waterfront Esplanade, and the nearby Sudima was a popular after-work spot for a late-night negroni.  

One of those earlier stays was a 24-hour stopover after catching the Coastal Pacific train from Picton. We ate, we drank, we swam with dolphins (not in that order), and hopped on the train to Christchurch the next day, buzzing. If 24 hours is all you have, it’ll do, but after a month there… It’s a curious thing, but the longer you stay, the more there is to see.  

Explore earth, sky and sea 

Local intel led us one day up a forbidden path beside a creek to an astonishing sight: A waterfall gushing into a pond full of baby seals, left there for the day by their mothers who were fishing out at sea. 

Another sunny day, local chopper pilot Dan Stevenson whisked us up into the ranges, snooping at swanky real estate on the way. 

One wet Sunday, we wound our way up into the foothills to a sheep farm for gin tasting and storytelling with Mt Fyffe distiller Justine Schroder.    

Since I was last there, Kaikōura has been declared an International Dark Sky Sanctuary – a journey that took almost as long as getting a TV show on air, and a designation awarded only to locations with exceptionally pristine night skies. Now there’s a plethora of adventures for the stargazers and stargrazers (gazers with food), including ziplining beneath the Milky Way. Imagine that – what a ride! 

There’s also a new Maui’s Footprint interactive experience with Māori Tours Kaikōura. Legend has it that the Kaikōura peninsula was what Maui used to brace himself as he fished the North Island out of the sea. 

See? So much still to see and do – I’d go back for more in a heartbeat.  

10 must-dos in Kaikōura 

1. Eat crayfish from the iconic Nin’s Bin caravan, or at the refurbished Pier Hotel, the outdoor Seafood BBQ Kiosk, Karaka Lobster on SH1 – or anywhere you can find it.  
2. Walk the Peninsula Loop, keeping an eye out for the seals who steal the carparks at the starting point. 
3. Go for a tasting of the award-winning gin at Mt Fyffe Distillery. 
4. Take a cooking class or join Fiona and Chris for the Friday night Supper Club at their blissful Hapuku Kitchen home.  
5. Catch a movie at The Mayfair, the art deco seaside cinema lovingly restored after the earthquake. 
6. Stop for a martini at the Kaikōura Boutique Hotel. I couldn’t walk past without jumping in for a snifter. 
7. Head south for a 4-wheel adventure at Glenstrae Farm. They don’t make views (or fun) like this anywhere else. 
8. Arrive by train on the Coastal Pacific, which runs from September to April.  
9. Whale watch from a fixed-wing or helicopter with South Pacific Helicopters, and do a swoop into the hills while you’re at it. 
10. Make a splash with Dolphin Encounter, an experience so uplifting and amazing that I have done it 3 times and am counting on a fourth.