Ohau Point Fur Seals

22 km north of Kaikoura on SH1 is signed Ohau Point and its resident Fur seal breeding colony. During the summer months, this is where the “action” is in terms of seeing a crowd of seals actually frolicking and moving about (at “haul-out” spots such as Kean Pt, the seals mostly just lay around, resting from a night of swimming/hunting). At Ohau Point there’ll be plenty of cute seal pups in the summertime, as well as all the drama that seal courtship entails—roaring bulls, tussling juveniles, squawking moms, territory battles, etc…all with seals surfing some waves also—quite a show! There are a variety of roadside pull-out spots with one signed boardwalk overlook site.

Ohau Falls. 23km north of Kaikoura, 1km north of the signed seal colony viewpoint. If you’ve read this far you deserve a treat, and here it is. Ohau waterfall’s little pool is just a 5-minute walk from the easy-to-miss turnout on SH1, just north of the main seal colony lookout stop. This waterfall may be NZ’s most interesting waterfall, but only if you’re lucky! A little-known nugget of info is that seal pups often make the difficult 300-ish meter rockhop up to the waterfall simply to splash, swim, and play in the small waterfall pool. It seems that the seals may only go up to the waterfall pool in the autumn and winter, but nobody seems to know for sure. Personally, I haven’t seen any pups-at-play the two summer visits that I’ve made to Ohau.

The pix here are from Brit travelers Jonty and Louise Abbott, who had this magic experience with the seal pups at the waterfall in June 2010. There had to be 12 or more pups playing in the pool when they arrived! No matter when you visit Kaikoura, pull off SH1 and make the easy walk— who knows? Even without seal pups you’ll marvel how the pups would even know to clamber up the stream. Do their moms somehow tell them that there’s a waterfall playpen up at the end?? Gotta Love NZ—an amazing sight around every corner!!