Kaikoura to Punakaiki

We drove from the ferry on an impressive road towards Kaikoura. On our way we were amazed to see a colony of seals on some rocks, right next to the road. They were playing and larking about by the rocks. They weren't bothered by us watching them which was good.

We booked our whale watching trip for the next day (the evening trips were cancelled due to bad weather) and found a campsite. We headed out to another known seal hot spot. We saw a few being lazy and got pretty close which again they didn't seem bothered by. They did bark at a couple who got way too close which we were happy about. I'm no big animal lover but if people want to see things in the wild then they need to leave them be!!

We went on a walk around the coast to find another seal spot. The weather suddenly turned bad and the tide came in. It was fair to say we were a bit stuck! We had visions of being a story on 999 where the story would start with "2 young walkers went unprepared wearing only flip-flops and shorts on slippery rocks"...etc!!

We saw a set of stairs 3/4 up the cliff. We decided to climb it through the long weed...in our flip-flops! We got to the top and could see the path we should've taken which was about 10 metres to the right of where we started!! Nevermind, it was fun climbing up and getting thorns in my foot! We got back and we were proper soaked.

We got up early the next day, the weather was good so we headed to the whale watching place only to be told it was cancelled due to rough seas. We luckily booked on a later one so went back to the campsite we technically checked out of and went back to bed (it was 7am).

We finally got our shabby mops cut, as we found a cheap hairdressers. As it was so cheap we were expecting the worse, and yep we got the worse. When I said 'choppy' for a style I think she thought I was talking about the weather. Emma said she hadn't had a cut that bad since she was little!

Thankfully our whale watching trip wasn't cancelled this time, although they did issue a sea sickness warning! After our last experience we didn't like the sound of that. But we'd been taking sea sickness tablets since we arrived in Kaikoura just in preparation...this time we weren't taking any chances! We sat at the back of the boat as we were told it's the least rocky place. It was pretty choppy heading out. Our guide pointed out sea birds, including huge albatross (which can have a 4m wingspan) but we were just too busy trying to ensure we didn't throw up again!

We stopped where the sperm whales were last sighted, and after about a 20 minute wait he appeared! From the photos it may just look like a large log floating in the water as only 10% of the whale is visible, but we assure you it is a sperm whale!! The most impressive part was when he dived back under, tale in the air. Unfortunately we don't have a picture to do it justice, but we were just too busy watching the whale!!!

As sperm whales usually stay underwater for 40-50 minutes the tour guide took us to see a pod of Dusky dolphins. Now we got excited when we saw a few jumping out of the water following the boat, but when the boat actually slowed down we realised just how many there were!!! Literally 100's of dolphins were swimming with our boat all jumping out of the water and even doing back flips! It has to be one of the most amazing things we have ever seen! I know it was meant to be a whale watching trip, but seeing the dolphins was by far the best part!

We got straight in the campervan and drove until it got dark, which took us to Oxford, just short of Sheffield! Yes we are still in New Zealand!

Back on the road early next morning to drive the famous Arthur's Pass road (don't worry I hadn't heard of it before I came out here either!) The scenery was amazing, and made a long road trip a lot more interesting! We made a stop at Lake Pearson which was an amazing area.

We took a detour (of about 3hours) to Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks and blow hole. We fought through the Japanese tourists to get a few good photos!!

After booking ourselves onto a glacier walk for the next morning we needed to travel all the way to Fox Glacier that evening!

We've added a little video of baby seals playing in the rockpools!! Click on photos which will open Picasa. The video will be the last one.