We both slept so well last night, probably because it was that cold our bodies thought they were going into hibernation! Chris's hot water goon bag creation worked well and kept us warm for hours. I really didn't want to leave our cosy bed and for a moment I wondered if Chris would mind driving while I stayed in bed lol, I didn't bother asking him though, it's already unfair that he's the only driver. 

This time Chris jumped out to make breakfast. We had cornflakes, a cup of tea then decided it was time to leave. It felt strange climbing out from the back of our camper van into the front seats and just driving away. We didn't have to worry about leaving anything behind, we had no room key to remember, it was all in the back! We wrapped up in our hoodies, jeans, hats and gloves but after driving for ten minutes the cab felt toasty and we were stripping it all off again. 

The drive to Kaikoura was beautiful, it got a bit foggy at times but that didn't matter. We drove past farm land with sheep covered in frost and snowy capped mountains shone brightly. By now it was 6:30am, the sun was rising and the clouds in the sky glowed pink. Chris said there was plenty more to see but I wouldn't have known, I fell asleep for most of the way there. 

We arrived in Kaikoura at 9am which was earlier than we expected so we stopped by the side of the sea for a hot drink while we watched a couple of seals playing. Then we drove into the centre of town where we found the whale watch office. There weren't any parking spaces big enough for our van so Chris parked in the coach area. Shortly after a few more camper vans arrived and copied us and so the whole area got filled. 

We went in and booked onto this mornings tour, then sat down for a hot choccy and a tri latte. I was upset that Chris got a biscuit with his and I didn't! so I gave the waiter a sad look and he gave me one as well. 

After watching a safety breifing and video about the whales it was finally time to go whale watching! I had the camera ready and waiting, hoping to get at least one great shot. At first all we were seeing were albatross and sea gulls, then we saw a seal swimming up close to the boat. Everyone was out on the decks staring out to sea. The crew told us to look out for a spray of water from the seas surface. They were using their equipment to listen for a whales call, by doing this they were able to pin point the whereabouts of a whale rising to the surface for air. As soon as the crew had an idea they told everyone to hold on or take a seat and turned the engines up to high speed. The boat darted to an area close to it then came to a stop. We had our eyes peeled then a shout over the tannoy telling everyone to look off the right side of the boat. There it was, a spray of water then the top of the head and body of a sperm whale peering on top of the seas surface. We were very close but the whale didn't seem to mind. It floated at the surface for about five minutes, taking in large breaths of fresh air before finally taking its last, then in one big dive the whale began to go back down, not before showing off its magnificent tail to us and leaving a perfect ring around a circle of smooth flat water which is called its foot print. It was amazing to see for ourselves and not on a tv screen, it would have been even more amazing if we could have got in with it! 

The tour lasted an hour and a half, we only saw one other whale but we didn't mind, we were just pleased we got to see them at all! After being dropped back at the harbour Chris chased off a group of sea gulls on top of our van, it was very funny, one of them wasn't afraid of him. Then we drove around to find a seal colony. They blended in with the rocks so much we almost completely missed them! The little fatties were just lazing around in the sun sleeping, we got within a meter of them but they didn't care. A group of teenagers were teasing one of the big males, a sign was up advising visitors not to touch them as they will bite. One of the guys in the group was testing to see how close he could get to the seal, me and Chris watched, both of us hoping the seal would snap at him lol. He gave us as soon as the seal began to growl. 

As we were going back to the camper van we saw another large male, this one had waddled into the car park and was sleeping on some reeds next to the road. He had completely flattened the whole plant! 

We stayed in the car park and made some lunch, then started the drive back to Christchurch just after 4pm. By 6pm it was dark and Chris couldn't really be bothered to drive any further so we stopped at a park called Pine Acres Holiday Park just outside Christchurch in a town called Kaipoi. It was cheaper than the Top Ten park and looked a little run down, actually it looked more like a pikeys site, we were the only tourists from what we could tell. Parked on the left of us was a very old hippy bus, I don't think it's been on the road for quite some time, it had brick work coming off of it and was surrounded by LOADS of creepy garden nomes. I imagined a crazy cat woman lived in there. 

After finding our patch to park we decided to drive into town to find McDonald's. We didn't eat in there, I just wanted to use the free wifi so I could send my mum and sister their Moon Pig cards, but like in most Mc Donald's the wifi was too slow so we ended up paying for it in the park. The friendly park owner lent us a couple of DVDs to watch, I chose Walk The Line which was a bad choice, Chris was asleep within minutes.