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Left Hamner Springs before 10am on Tues 23rd and had arrived in Kaikoura by midday despite pretty slow progress on the amazing coastal road towards the end - the sea was an amazing colour and waves were crashing by the rocks right at the edge of the road. Pulled up into the A1 Motel and Holiday Park - quite dingy and muddy but the facilities were OK and it only cost $20 for the night. Plus we adopted a cat! (well, it adopted us in the hope of food!) Had some frankfurter sarnies and crisps before heading into Kaikoura for a look around. Lots of places selling crayfish and not much else! Had a very very lazy afternoon spent predominantly in Global Gossip uploading all of our New Zealand photos to date and writing some blog (5 days took 2.5 hours!) Came back to the campsite to read, cook stirfry for dinner and eat alot of manuka honey shortbread biscuits mmmm! Tried to watch Good Will Hunting but the DVD was broken so admitted defeat and were asleep by 10, crazy times!
Wed 24th we were up bu half 8 after an awesomely long sleep :o) Still so difficult to get out of bed in the Spaceship though as the duvets are really cosy but above it is FREEZING. Managed to climb out, shower, change and beautify for the whales by 9.15, driving to the Whale Way Station (no joke) by 9.20. Had a very nutritious breakfast of 2 muesli bars and powerade before checking in for our 10am cruise. With a seasickness warning attached to the cruise I took preemptive action with $2 seasickness pill which was natural and kept making me burp ginger, gross! Watched a cool video for a while all about the different whales, their behaviour, features etc whilst we waited for everyone then boarded a bus to drive us 10 minutes to the marina. The boats were quite small but could seat about 40 people inside and were very new and snazzy (no doubt funded by the packed boat at $140 a ticket!) with plasma TVs showing presentations and awesome viewing decks outside. The crew were really friendly Maori blokes and obviously very knowledgable. We had to sit inside whilst the boat sped out to the deeper water at speeds of up to 25 knots (45mph!) but every so often the boat would stop so the captain could use a hydrophone - some posh and expensive piece of equipment to listen to whales and hopefully we could work out where abouts they were. Got good signal a few times so headed to that area to wait...thankfully didn't get further noises meaning that the whales were closer to the surface and hopefully coming up to see us! Spied some blowspray (?! unsure of the official term!) and once closer spied our first whale! All the ones we spotted were sperm whales, named after the 2.5 tonnes of waxy oil reserve in their heads (early whalers thought it was the reproductive system but the location and the fact it was present in both males and females proved otherwise!) They float about on the surface for approximately 7-10 minutes before taking one last big breath, arching their dorsal fin and waving bye with their tail! Managed to see four different sperm whales, no mean feat when they are pretty unsocial, solitary animals unlike dolphins. Saw some of them too! And all sorts of big sea birds too, especially albatrosses. Spent about 2 hours out on the water in total and what with the super choppy sea, I was quite relieved when we headed back! Got back to the Whale Way station about half 1 so left the car to get some lunch from the supermarket, send a few emails and swap our DVDs at the Spaceship station. Got back to the car and headed off for Renwick via Blenheim about 140km further north. It was a very difficult journey as we predominantly drove in to the sun but made it to Renwick by half 5 or so. Stayed at Watson's Way Backpackers, where they have park up spots ($30) and it was such a nice place - big lounge/kitchen with comfy leather seats and clean showers (no flip flops required!) Went to the supermarket for a couple of dinners and bits and pieces before returning to the hostel for a shower and chill out in the lounge - TV and new books! Around 7.30 we cooked up some fajitas and watched more TV but had to leave when the season finale of LOST came on and Dan ran screaming with his fingers in his ears ;o) Read for a bit in the Spaceship before getting an earlyish night in preparation of mucho cycling tomorrow!
Thursday 25th, we were up by 9 to pay for another night here and bike rental for cycling around the wineries this afternoon (there is no ATM in Renwick hence had to pay for everything with credit cards). Had some breakfast and then read for a while and planned our route around the vineyards - lots of places not open in winter. Couldn't quite face starting our tour at 10am despite my love of Sauvignon so headed out about half 11 - complete with very attractive helments and most importantly panniers for the bike so we could carry as many bottles as we could back! Our first stop was a personal favourite of mine, Cloudy Bay. Their sauvignon blanc is famous worldwide and certainly didn't disappoint. We bought a bottle of their sparkling wine, Pelorus for Gabrielle and Richard (for providing us with a bed in Wellington!) before only going across the road to Allan Scott, a more boutiquey feeling winery set in a beautiful old building covered in vines and ivy. Tried 5 different wines before settling on the 1st! Sauvignon Blanc, quelle surprise ;o) Had a slightly longer cycle to Bouldevines next, which was set in a small complex of various organic/natural/homemade shops but we managed to resist the possum gloves and countless number of jams and settle for more wine. Tried their sparkling wine which was horrid and gave me heartburn and hiccups but thankfully the sauvignon blanc and pinot gris (which tasted like pear drops!) were much better so bought a bottle of each. By this point it was about 2 and we were in urgent need of sustenance (grapes don't count). Had lunch at the cafe there which did all sorts of yummy home made bits - I had some huge feta and veg quiche whilst Dan had venison pie. Consequently we were pretty sleepy after all the vino and food and the novelty of cycling was starting to wear off with a seriously numb bum! Managed one more winery, Wairau River, where we also managed to restrain ourselves from more spending, go us! Cycled back to Watson's Way via the supermarket for Powerade and chocolate to complete the best part of a 15km round trip, where we collapsed on the sofas in front of the TV! Chilled from 5-7ish, had some snackage and drank some of our stash from today whilst cooking chicken schnitzels, sweet potato mash and baked beans yum!! Continued watching TV including the classic Dodgeball until 11ish before we went out to the Spaceship for sleeps induced by a lot of food and wine!
Had to check out of Watson's Way by 10am the following morning (Fri 26th) so up at half 8 to shower, have breakfast and sort our stuff out before driving about 30km to Picton. Not much to do here in all honesty but not leaving for Wellington on the ferry until the following day so had time to kill. Found 4 hour parking spaces so left the car and spent our time wandering about (took all of 5 minutes!) and finding some internet. Managed to waste a bit of time Facebook-ing, attempting to update the blog and reading about Michael Jackson's tragic demise (thanks for the heads up on Michael Johnson, Adam!! ;o) lol) Went for coffee and something to eat at a cafe called Gusto which was really good and picked up a couple of magazines en route so read for a while. Bac at the car by 2 so drove to Picton Top 10 Holiday Park to camp for the night - $32 in total but the facilities were really good including a TV lounge with Sky, internet, really clean toilets and showers. Spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV, reading and planning our North Island adventures snuggled up on the sofa. Decided we couldn't be bothered to cook despite the huge, clean kitchen so went into town about 5.30ish with the intention of going for one drink before getting fish and chips takeaway however the place we went for a drink, Corner Bistro, was actually a really nice restaurant too so stayed put. I had scallops with green thai curry linguine and Dan, ever the enigma, went for a large mighty meat pizza ;o) Couldn't drink any more as had to drive back so went back (via the supermarket for chocolate!) to watch Relocation, Relocation, Esacpe to the Country and Antiques Roadshow with an old and slightly smelly lesbian couple before they left and we watched 21, seriously excited for Vegas! Ate a lot of chocolate and went to bed about midnight feeling completely full and sick!
Well, that is the end of our South Island adventures - now in Wellington after getting the ferry from Picton yesterday. Really want to go back there at some stage though, it is such a beautiful place and home to less than 1 million people - shocking how more people haven't invaded yet! We now have 8 days until we leave for Fiji and so trying to cram in as much in the North Island as possible - will keep you updated! :o)
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