This is a fabulous walk, provided you skip most of it. If you do the full loop from town, most of the walk is a concrete footpath, or boardwalk, alongside the road, with nothing to see apart from the ocean (which is lovely, but doesn’t change until the very end of the road). The best way to do this is drive to the very end of the road, park in the car park, walk along the rocks below the cliff until Whalers Bay, then follow the path and steps up to the headland and access the proper walk all the way back to the car park. This will take you a couple of hours at most, and bring you right up close to the seals, and then give you the wonderful views all the way back. (Or vice versa, cliff then reef is fine). Stop off at the crayfish van on the way there or back for lunch, and you’ve done the best of Kaikōura without the 2 hour slog along the road.

The loop walk (about 12km or so) has a bit of everything. If you start at the carpark on either side you have a choice of going up to land and walking along the top, then returning along the rocks- or the other way around. On the top you get views of the ocean while walking through farmland and scrub, alongside cows and everything. Some of it is boardwalk along trees. The bottom is amazing, seals everywhere and lots of things to climb.

Walked it a couple of times, sunrise is amazing! 5 minutes walk to the top from the carpark and then easy going from there. Great views over to the other side of the peninsula, saw both dolphins and seals. Then headed down and walked around the base - great as well. Uncrowded - can walk right from town if you like. Enjoyed it immensely so went 3 or 4 times!

An oceanscape on a par with the world's most famous coasts. We parked at the lot at the end of the road, took the steep path up to the near headland, then walked "up top" to nearly South Bay. We descended to the shoreline on one of several connecting paths and made our way back. These paths down the cliffside enable one to make the hike long or short. Just before arriving back at the car park we stood with others and watched a number of seals sunning themselves on the rocks.

I would highly recommend doing at least part of this walk while visiting Kaikoura. The full loop that we did (starting and ending in the town center of Kaikoura) easily takes about 5-6 hours. There are multiple tracks--one along the top of the cliffs and the other down along the shoreline. We started along the lower shoreline track from the car park at the end of Fyffe Quay (Point McKean), which had amazing view of seals (literally hundreds) at about 10 minutes into the walk. After continuing on the shoreline track for about an hour (and continuing to see more seals and sea birds), the track ran out (or was washed out), so we had to double back and climb up the connecting track to the cliff track at Whaler's Bay Lookout. We then continued along the cliff track for the rest of the loop to the South Bay Reserve car park. There is a pedestrian walkway (Tom's Track) that connects from South Bay Pde back to the town center. We enjoyed the whole walk, but the most scenic parts are close to the car parks on both ends. If you have a car and are interested in doing a shorter version, I would consider driving and parking at the Fyffe Quay car park to explore the lower shoreline track and seal colony near Point McKean. Then, I would drive over to the South Bay Reserve car park and walk up to the cliff track to explore some of the views there. If you are an avid trekker, I would say to go for the full loop!

This is a wonderful walk in Kaikoura. The full loop is about 12 km but you can do a shorter version of desired. On the way there are many look out points for you to enjoy the beautiful picturesque landscape and ocean. There are also a lot of seals along the coastal section. You can also hear them bark. You can either walk along the top of the cliff or along the shoreline. I highly recommend doing both if you have time. All in all this is one of the best and most accessible day walks in NZ.