The Quiet Beauty of Kaikōura | National Geographic

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Nestled on the northeast coast of New Zealand's South Island, Kaikoura is a small town with a big story. Fresh seafood, friendly faces, and above all, abundant wildlife that you can experience up close. National Geographic sent us three cultural explorers to discover what makes Kaikoura so special. Our first stop was an iconic roadside eatery, Nin's Bin.

"Welcome to Nin's Bin! Grant started this back in 1977. These crates are just caught straight out in front of the shop here, plain and simple, very fresh. It's how we like to keep it. Here we go, team!"

"Oh my god, that looks amazing! Fantastic! This is beautiful. All right, thank you. All right, don't be shy, team!"

"Yeah, oh my gosh! Oh wow! On the one hand, it's such simple food, but it's so rich and flavorful. Yeah, it's just plain simple tasty seafood, you know. Kaikoura is known for its seafood, and all the seafood that we get in Kaikoura is beautiful."

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"As travelers, I mean, we've got this incredible landscape we're looking at. We've met incredible people, we've eaten delicious food. What is it here like? It seems like you've got everything!"

"Yeah, that's beautiful! Way you go! See whales, you got swim with dolphins, you go kayak with the seals, you know. That's everything's here. Why would you want to leave?"

"I don't! After tasting the Kaikoura crayfish, I went off to have a marine wildlife adventure of my own—swimming with the region's famed dusky dolphins."

"We're here with Dolph McKenna, Kaikoura. I'm so excited to be going in with the dolphins today! Can you tell us a little bit about what we're going to see in the water?"

"Yeah, sure! We have the dusky dolphins primarily here, and they usually reside along our coastline in really large pods. There they are, like right here in the background! And it's an all-year-round opportunity, which is quite unusual for this type of activity. Right, and that's why Kaikoura is world-renowned for marine mammal interaction and activity. I think what's really key is that interacting with wildlife makes you discover something about yourself as well as discovering something in nature. Yeah, and that's what we're so absolutely wrapped to share with everyone who comes here."

"Yeah, just special!"

"It is very special! I must have yelped a dozen times every time they came up. It was like a squeal of delight! Sometimes they would show up in my face, you know, just sort of nose to nose, take a peek, and move along. I remember popping my head out of the water a few times just to sort of look around and remind myself that like this isn't a green screen. This isn't a movie. This is real; these animals are here and just with me. It was an incredible moment!"

"How was that?"

"So fun! So awesome! That was incredible! There were dozens of them, and they were just swimming in circles around me. Because it was magic!"

Meanwhile, artist Christoph Neiman joined community leader Brett Cowan at Kaikoura's Point Keen seal colony.

"I read on a plaque somewhere that this rock that we're standing on actually has a big spiritual history, also in terms of Maori history."

"Most definitely! As Maui was fishing up his gigantic fish, Ika Maui, so much pressure was exerted through his body that the side of his canoe started to push out into the ocean. That's how we say the peninsula was formed by Maui's foot, so we're standing in one of Maui's footprints here."

"My personal threshold for feeling a spiritual experience is very high, but I gotta say standing here with the ocean surrounding you above that is moving. What makes the space so special?"

"In terms of the whales, their main concern is about the sustainability of the whale's habitat—so keeping it small and safe. This is the attraction, and we're just spectators. We feel responsible for all wildlife in this area and that we treat them and revere them as an extended part of our family—what we call whanau. We're grateful that we have those special tonga or gifts that have been handed down from our ancestors for us to manage today. A concept which we call kaitiakitanga, or the act of guardianship, is very strong from children right through to our elders."

"And is that sense of environmentalism, sustainability, and caring for Mother Earth?"

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"This is such a magical place—the ocean and the land really coming together. I've never seen something where you have the high mountains, snow-covered, that close to the ocean. The animals—yeah, just seeing all the animals that we've seen since we've been here between the whales, the dolphins, the birds, and the seals. There's just been so much here, and it all feels really interconnected with the land and the place. It's been amazing!"

"Everything is beautiful, and it's not just the animals! I mean, the people have been incredibly welcoming as well, and really makes you feel like this is a place that you want to spend a lot more time."

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"Yes!"

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"Oh!"