Kaikoura

Kaikoura was incredible! We drove for some way right along the coast and it was beautiful sunshine so we were in good spirits after picking our campervan up! We stayed at Goose Bay holiday park. It was 11 dollars to stay the night, and we use their facilties, including a hot shower. First proper night in the new Jucy Cabana and we decided to cook a big chilli. We camped by the sea and woke up to eat porridge overlooking the nice views- something I wouldn't do every day!

We went to the Whale Watch centre by the railway to register for the trip and then went on a 2 hr boat ride out to sea. The young guide was really informative. She told us the Kaikoura canyon is the closest in the world to a coastline. It's basically where the bottom of the ocean drops from 200m to 1000m deep, so there's a lot of sealift close to the shore. We spotted a Sperm Whale and watched it surface for about 10 mins, until it showed its tail and swam back down into the ocean. We also managed to see what looked like a hundred Dusky Dolphins swimming together, getting close to the boat and jumping up and out of the water. Finally, we saw loads of Fur Seals relaxing on the rocks near the shore. Overall, it was a pretty cool trip! Don't reckon I'll be seeing those animals again anytime soon!

As we drove away from Kaikoura, we stopped off at Ohau. We walked up the path for about five minutes and came to a waterfall where loads of seals we swimming and jumping in the freshwater basin and sunbathing on the rocks. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before- a little hangout for the seals!

We're driving to Abel Tasman National Park. We're planning on doing an 8 hour walk tomorrow along the coast. Hopefully we'll get to the campsite soon to cook, it's 7.30pm. I'll upload this post when I can!