Our Big Blue Backyard - Kaikōura

It's specialty is its impression of a rock, with seaweed growing on it. It takes a lot of effort to look this good. The crab has to collect the most appropriate accessories — and then get dressed.

– Narrator Michael Hurst describes a crab's camouflage

It's the morning rush hour in Kaikōura, and these commuters are dusky dolphins, one of New Zealand's most common dolphin species. This is the night shift, on their way home to rest.

– Narrator Michael Hurst, early in this documentary

The Kaikōura Peninsula splays into the Pacific like an outstretched paw. In the rocky bays between its toes, more locals warm up in the morning sun.

– Narrator Michael Hurst

Crab – one; heron – nil. For now!

– Narrator Michael Hurst

The single female is single no more — and her mate is a female. With the Kaikōura male shortage, many red-billed gull nests have two mothers.

– Narrator Michael Hurst describes a red-billed gull

They also provide a home for the largest, and the weirdest anemone in New Zealand waters. Most anemones live in colonies attached to rocky niches. The wandering anemone is an oddball exception, in that — it wanders.

– Narrator Michael Hurst describes a bladder kelp forest on offshore reef Bushett Shoal