Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs

We have now come up to the middle of our holiday. Both Sel and I can't believe how quick it has gone. It is really nice to have two weeks left and still be in the middle of our holidays.

The ferry crossing between Wellington and Picton went well. We had what we think is very calm weather over the Cook Strait, and we had no trouble with seasickness. When we landed very happily on the South Island shore we decided to drive straight down to Kaikoura. The drive was very scenic and not at all too hard to do, definitely one of our best driving routes in New Zealand so far. The beaches were really beautiful with black lava sand and rolling hills in the backdrop, and almost no people around. "It is how I expected New Zealand to be", Henrik said.

Arriving in Kaikorua we went with our trusted choice, booked ourselves in and headed down to check out the beach walk, Kaikorua peninsula walk. Unfortunately we did not have a map at hand so we decided to stop the walk half way and head back. We would have loved to do the whole thing, but instead we found something very interesting, seals!

We stopped the car and made a small walk out to the Kaikoura seal colony. Out there we saw many many New Zealand fur seals resting on the stony beach and napping to get ready for their evening/night hunting.

After that we went for a really yummy meal at Hislop's. All food was organic and we were especially impressed with the Seafood Chowder and the home made bread.

The day after started really early for us with one of our top events coming to New Zealand, swimming with the Dusky Dolphins at the Kaikoura Dolphin Encounter. We got dressed up in the neoprene and got on the bus to the South Bay where the dolphin boats set out from. We went out to meet the dolphins, and there were hundreds of them. We had expected to see a handful or maybe ten to twenty, but we think we saw about three hundred in the dolphin pod. Getting in the water snorkeling and having them within arms length's distance was a magical experience.

We were lucky to experience a relatively calm day (swells were small to moderate). It was still tough going for us at the end of the snorkeling sessions and on the boat on the way back suffering from seasickness.We had taken ginger capsules but still when getting to shore things were a bit shaky. All in all by no doubt it was a worthwhile experience and the dolphin encounter is one of our most memorable tourist outings in New Zealand so far.

After having lunch and recovering from our dolphin encounter, we decided to drive to Hanmer Springs. We really enjoyed the spa and are now happily parked up at the campsite.