We woke at 10am!! After a lovely luxurious sleep!! Garth went down to say good morning to Margaret only to her suddenly remembering she had a funeral to go to and dashed out!

We showered, had breakfast and cleaned our the van. We stopped at McDs for wifi them went to Coutdown to do another shop for the next 4 days...$89!!!! It's not cheap!!! London is cheaper!!

We then made our way down to Kaikoura which took about 2 hours. We thought the south island might not have been so effected by the droit but it really has! Rolling yellow hills and completely dry river beds!! It was a little sad!

We checked into the whale watching before having a quick and late lunch - a Tina sandwich, which in hindsight wasn't the best idea! At 4pm we had out health and safety video before taking a short bus ride to the boats. The day was overcast but not too windy so they said the sea was calm! Lol!

Before boarding they advised people with troubling issues such as pregnancy (lol) to sit at the back. We sat right at the front.

We drove 5 miles out over an underwater canyon which is a feeding ground for the male sperm whale. The females don't have as much blubber so stay nearer the equator. The males hold their breath for approx 45 mins before coming up to re-oxygenate for 5-10 mins (max time to hold breath is over 2 hrs!). So during the 2.5 hour journey we would hope to see 2 whales at most! The company had a refund policy: there is an 80% chance of seeing a whale, so if none were seen they would refund you 80% of the fair - which I liked!

Despite the 'calm' conditions, moving at speed made it really quite a up and down ride for us spectators. We were shown face videos in the way which was good. We couldn't help but think how professional it all was compared to south america!

They tracked the whales by listening underwater to a clicking sound they make whilst hunting out food. This took some time and persistence. But following one eventually led to the sound disappearing which meant it was surfacing. At this point we were invited up to the top of the boat to keep an eye out for its blow. (they have seen many a sea weed whale, so they don't go until they see blow).

A crew member quickly spotted the whale and we drove up along side it (although we were still a good 15-20 meters away.) after the frenzy of photos it was really quite something to take in. It was HUGE! Definitely the biggest fish I've ever seen! :) the water was dark so we could only see a small portion of its body above the water. It's node was at the front of its head (unlike the traditional blue whale) so we could see that when it breathed. The blow went 2 meters into the air which was cool and when there was a dip between waves we could see a weird rippling on its dark skin. It splashed its tail 3 times which was apparently unusual and we were lucky! :)

As it went to dive (the guaranteed tail shot) it was breath taking: a real feeling of awe to be in the presence of such a big, serene animal!

We were asked to move back inside where we were told the whales name and age, and that it was 18 meters long!! That sperm whales eat 1 ton of food every day, which is the equivalent of what a human eats in 1 year!!

We drove a bit further to track another whale a bit closer to land, which took a bit longer but we were very blessed to see 2 whales! I went up top this time for a better view but Garth stated down as he was feeling a bit green!! This time I enjoyed watching it more than taking photos. It was an amazing experience, but it would have been really cool to have clear water and a glass bottom boat to really appreciate its size!!

We were grateful to be back on land but also slightly elated by the experience! We started making the 2 hour drive back to Blenhiem. We had planned a basic (free) campsite just west of Blenhiem. Due to it being so late we drove while the sun was setting and we were naughty and grabbed a McDs on the way along with some petrol.

I will keep this next bit short...but basically the campsite was gone or closed or something and Garth and I drove around in circles and back on ourselves for nearly two hours in the dark, whilst very tired, only to not find anything...

We ended up stopping at 11pm off some random road and sleeping illegally there! :(