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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
and our first stop was an iconic
roadside eatery
nin's bin welcome to nin's bin
granted 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 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 and
yeah sure that we have the dusky
dolphins primarily here and they
usually reside along our coastline in
really large box there they are
like right here in the background um 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 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 this is real these these animals
are here and just
uh 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 and um
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
like
rock that we're standing on actually has
a big spiritual history
also in terms of like maori history most
definitely has
as maui was fishing up his gigantic fish
to 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 uh it's
moving
what makes the space so special in terms
of the whales
their main concern is about uh
sustainability
of of the whale's habitat so keeping it
small and safe
and small 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 extinction or extended part of our
family
yeah what we call whanau where 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 like high mountain snow covered
that close to the ocean
yeah the animals yeah just seeing all
the animals that we've seen since we've
been here between the whales and the
dolphins and 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