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Christchurch & Kaikora
The bus journey to Christchurch was HORRIBLE! There was no air conditioning on the bus so it was SO hot…such a relief to get off. We arrived at our hostel in Christchurch but only stayed for 1 night before we hired our car to go to Kaikora, just North of Christchurch. Kaikora is renowned for its sea life so we booked up to go Whale Watching and Dolphin Swimming! We were both really excited about doing these…
When we hired the car we though we might be getting something reasonably new, but no… instead we got 'Windy', the Toyota Corolla that was about 20 years old (and it was an automatic which Matt hated)!!! The journey was very easy and only took about 2.5 hours. Emily was VERY happy that it got us there!
We 1st went to see the Seal colony at the end of the bay …they are right next to the car park when it is high tide and you can get up to 10m from them. Matt took some photos of the seals actually in the car park!! In the afternoon we went Whale Watching. The sea was quite choppy so we warned of sea sickness before we boarded, but luckily neither of us were sick. We saw 4 Sperm Whales which was amazing… they are such huge creatures and can reach up to 18m in length! The best bit was when they spurted from their hole and when they dived down so you got to see their tail.
The next day we did the dolphin swimming. The weather was really foggy when we woke up so we were unsure if it would still be running …but fortunately it was and the sea conditions were perfect! We got kitted up in our wetsuits, snorkels, flippers and goggles ready to get in the water with the dolphins. We both couldn't believe how many dolphins there were in the sea… at least 100!!! Even the crew on the boat said that this was a lot by their standards! When in the water they would come up really close to and they were so clear. At times a group of dolphins would circle with you and you could dive down with them. It was amazing! We had 3 sessions in the water before getting out to take photos of the dolphins jumping and flipping in the sea.
We had to get back to Christchurch to drop the car back so had a quick lunch before heading off again. It was a REALLY fun road trip!!
At the mo we are in Christchurch….pretty unimpressive so not much to report here (most things are closed due to Easter weekend!) We are off to Sydney on 25th March 08 so look forward to the next blog from there!
We have both loved New Zealand a lot, but the North Island was our favourite, especially Auckland and Wellington. The scenery is lovely in the south but the people are a bit weird!
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