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After a freeezing night in the car, we were woken by day break & tucked into our breakfast feast of baguette & hummus. Once suitably stuffed, we set off to see the sights that Kaikoura had to offer.
On the way we saw some wild seals on the rocks of the shore line & we stopped to watch them for a while, as they are pretty funny & cute.
Kaikoura is well known for it's whale watching. There is a selection of sealife, due to an abrupt drop in ocean floor, considerably close to the shore. Unfortunatly we didn't get to see any whales while we were there, but we did go to the local museum. In which we learnt about the history of wales in Kaikoura & visited the local jail!
On the way out of town we saw a sign "Caves restaurant" and headed to investigate in the hope of finding some sort of cave. We did and had a lovely tour round a cozy sea formed cave called Maurifalls after a Mauri guy who jumped off the cliff that held the cave in order to escape from enemies.
We then headed to Hanmer Springs where we delighted in some hot pool action, with pool temperatures ranging from 33 to 42 degrees. Through some more coupon exchanging we also got a free 30 minutes in a private sauna! It was a very relaxing way to spend 3 hours, although the running between pools was brisk, as the pools were located outdoors by a ski village with snowcovered mountains on the horizon!
By the time we were done there, we had just enough time to pick up a pub lunch (which was quite the challange when there are very few towns in the South Island!). We settled for chicken nuggets, fish fingers & chips in the small town of culverden, a "local' pub where everyone turns to look at the non-regulars when they walk in. It was a nice meal & very good value!
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