Nana and Papa (Jeremiah’s mom and dad) came to town a week ago, and no sooner did they alight then whisked them up to Kaikoura (3 hours north) for the weekend. Jeremiah has planned out each weekend that they’re here–two for hunting and the other for a Kaikoura trip. Nana had to catch her Z’s when she could, but they recovered from the jet-lag surprisingly quickly and were game to go.

Kaikoura weather cooperated, and we enjoyed some beach walks together.

Papa is a collector, scanning the rocks for sea shell treasures.

Milo’s really into his letters these days. “What it say, Mom?” he queries. He doesn’t know how to spell much beyond his name, but he figures that long line of letters must spell SOMETHING impressive.

Milo’s got sand, Nana’s got the kids, Papa’s collecting stuff, and Jeremiah has his new spear gun and fishing kit….everyone’s content.

Everyone’s happy except the poor Moki fish…they get the raw end of the deal. Or, actually, the cooked end if you take it literally.

Moki wasn’t the only fish we got that weekend. Jeremiah brought his parents on a deep sea fishing trip, convenient in Kaikoura because the ocean shelf drops off precipitously under that calm blue water, so you don’t have to go that far from shore to get to the deep sea. 

The fishing charter pulled up a couple cray pots while they were out. We passed a restaurant sign in town advertising their crayfish (rock lobster) dinners for $83 a piece.  Imagining this unappetizing display of crusty legs and bugged out eyes to be worth $250 made it seem a bit more gourmet.

We capped off the trip with a stop at Pegasus Bay vineyard to feed their freaky eels. And no, they didn’t shriek. They do make an impressive sucking noise when they open their mouths and reach for the fish dangling off the end of the fork–it’s enough to make anyone fear for their toes when wading in New Zealand rivers. The restaurant saves all their smelly fish bits for kids to toss to the eels. We adults were at least as fascinated as Milo was with the eerie writhing critters.