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Dear All,
Thought we'd update you before we commence our journey through the North Island. We travelled across the Cook Strait yesterday in beautiful sunshine but we didn't know that it was the anniversary of the Waihini disaster in 1968 when 54 people lost their lives making the same journey. It's a 3 hour crossing from Picton to Wellington and a ferry got hit by a cyclone 40 years ago and 600 people were saved when the ferry was blown on to the reefs.
We are now in Welly and have stayed with one of Paul's old school friends from Woodberry Down. John moved here from the UK in 1977 and settled down with a Kiwi lass, Ellen. They showed us all around Wellington and Mt. Victoria. They made us really welcome and we caught up on old times.
We spent 2 days in Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs, where they have the thermal pools. After soaking ourselves in the hot thermals for 2 hours, we made the dramatic drive to Kaikoura. We drove through the Kaikoura mountain range and finally reached the east coast. The journey from the West coast to the East coast has to be one of the greatest drive journeys in the world. Went to a quiz night and hooked up with a honeymoon couple in their 30's and got nowhere as all the questions were geared towards the under 25's...................... Who cares?
Thursday was THE BIG day for us. We had booked the swimming with dolphins last September and even though we went swimming with dolphins in Akoroa 2 weeks ago, it was NOTHING like this. Donned our wet suits, masks, hoods and fins and headed out about a mile until we spotted a pod of dolphins about 3/4 hundred strong. We were in the water in seconds and the dolphins were all around us. We were in a canyon 1800 feet deep and the dolphins were inches away from us. 4/5 dolphins would be swimming around us at any one time and eyeballing us. We could sense that we were being investigated by them and their eyes were looking at us under the water. IT WAS MAGICAL! It's one thing to see them in a dolphinarium but these were wild dusky dolphins and we were entering THEIR world, and that's what made it extra special. One of them swam in circles around Marion. We were instructed to make as much noise as possible down and through our snorkels to attract their attention. They started to perform all sorts of somersaults and spins and to really show off. It was wonderful to see. We also saw 4/5 wandering albatross' with a wing span of 12 feet. When they took off, I thought 'Air Traffic control' as they were that big!
On Friday we went whale watching and saw 2 Sperm Whales both longer than a Boeing 737 jet!!!!! Both male, aged about 30 years old. Then we saw them dive. They can dive 180 meters a minute. Their heart is bigger than a small family saloon car and a person could swim in the arteries of their heart without touching the sides. They eat 4 tonnes of plankton and krill a day.
The marine life around these shores is unbelievable. We drove to the seal colony and there was one laying in the car park! There were seals everywhere but warning notices not to go too close to them. One tourist did and got himself between the seal and sea, which was not a good idea. The seal attacked him and it was funny to see the stupid American tourist leg it.
We're back in the campervan tomorrow heading due North.
That's all folks.
Paul & Marion
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