Kaikoura and the Whales!

After a much needed sleep in the Sanctuary, we were up and back on the bus the next morning on route to Kaikoura - I'd still not made my decision about how long to stay and what activities to do, as you can tell this trip hasn't improved my decisiveness at all!!

Other than a little stop in Cheviot for brekkie, the trip to Kaikoura didn't take so long. Our driver Smiley was just as his name describes (and named so due to his appearance as the 'Colgate Kid' on NZ adverts when he was a wee nipper... classic! A lifetime's supply of Colgate was part of the deal too, bargain!! and it passed pretty painlessly. To our amusement, it seems that we've gained ourselves a bit of notoriourty with the Kiwi Experience... as soon as any driver looks at one of our tickets the reaction is usually something along the lines of 'oh, you're Justin's girls!!!' Comedy!!

We reached Kaikoura by late morning and checked into a gorgeous little hostel - was basically a converted house and the feel to it was really homely. I'd still not decided how long to stay but had opted for Whale watching that afternoon. We had an hour or so to kill so made ourselves a cuppa and chilled out on the sofa's and in the garden at the hostel while we waited til it was time to head out. The temperature now that we were headed north had noticably improved and there wsa finally no need for the ski jacket at all times. It did come with me that afternoon in fairness but it wasn't really needed.

We checked in for the whale watching tour around half 12 and although i'd been warned about motion sickness I thought i'd be ok, I'd survived all the other boat rides so why should this one be any different?! Couldn't have been more wrong..... from start to finish it was 'eye's on the horizon, deep breaths' just to make sure there were no embarrasing incidents when the wind may have been blowing in an unfortunate direction!!! That said, the tour was fab, i still managed to enjoy it. How can you not when you spot 8 Giant Sperm Whales and get so close to them. I've never seen whales before so it was really exciting. I learnt something new that day too - did you know that a Killer Whale isn't in fact technically a whale - it's actually the largest member of the Dolphin family, named the Killer Whale simply because it preys on Whales!! Now maybe that's an obvious thing to everyone but I didn't realise that so there! ;-)

Anyway, once we'd spotted the whales - 3 of which were all side by side, an amazing sight! It was time to head back to shore, on the way though we came across a pod of Dusky Dolphins, about 300 of them... all just swimming anc jumping around in the water, they followed the boat for ages and it was an unbelievable sight - made me want to swim with them even more. After spending a while with the Dolphin's it really was time to get back. The only reason i was glad to get off the boat was so my stomach would settle, otherwise it had been an amazing few hours. A definete must do for anyone!

I'd decided to leave the decision of whether to stay a few extra days and swim with the dolphin's up to the fate of my bank balance... unfortunately it didn't really lend itself to staying so the decision was made to leave for Wellington the next day and try and fit in the swimming with Dolphin's when up North before I leave if I have enough money... obviously jury's still out on that one but fingers crossed as i'm told you can do it in the Bay of Islands and from Auckland!

Anyway, once we were back on dry land we headed back to the hostel and vegged out til it was time for dinner. The hostel offer's a fish and chip supper, including drink for $5 so Cat, Kirsten and I had opted for that. After we'd stuffed ourselves silly, Smiley took us off to the wholesalers for a 'beer run' - Kaikoura is just a small town and in an effort to save money too we'd decided to just have a few drinks at the hostel that evening. I'm not entirely sure how this saved us money in the end as Cat and I found ourselves giving into our temptation and buying ourselves a bottle of Southern Comfort between us - oops! - Just call us 'Flashpackers!!' Was yum though and yep, we managed to polish off the entire bottle that evening - infact we made scarily easy work of it... oh dear!

It wasn't just us though, everyone else tucked into there chosen tipples with avengeance that evening - Becky and Aid got through 2 boxes of Goon between them.. good work ladies!! Some of the lads on the bus were getting through their beers nicely and needless to say it was another very comical, very late evening.... ending in laughing fits, hat antic's (Becky!!) Cat picking me up and throwing me on the floor (no injuries don't worry - just more laughing!) Aid earning herself the new nickname of 'Patsy' - photo here should tell all - and yet again, there was an early morning bus to catch the next day... like i said - we'll never learn!!!!!

All good fun though and I have to admit I could've quite happily have stayed longer in Kaikoura, it's a beautiful spot by the ocean, and with the weather as it was at the time, the sun out - the colours were gorgeous and the place very welcoming. I loved it there. xx