Mountains, Whales and birthdays.....

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Dear all,
Two days ago I celebrated my birthday. We were supposed to be going whale watching but sadly the sperm whales had moved too far out to find food and so the trip was canceled. Instead we went to the beach and watched the wild seals. In the afternoon we went to a cave which was discovered years ago by some people digging in a quarry. The cave is millions of years old and used to be under sea level.

The next day we went back to try again with the whales but they were still too far out for the boat to reach them and so the trip did not go. We decided that it was time to leave Kaikoura but we will be traveling back that way in a few days...so hopefully the whales will be around then.

Yesterday we drove to Christchurch which is one of the bigger towns in South Island. We went to the Antarctic Experience. New Zealand sends quite a few scientists to Antarctica each year and the experience is based on some of the information that researchers bring back. We saw little blue penguins being fed...sadly not the huge Emperor penguins that are found in Antarctica. We also went into a room full of snow and found out what a -18 degrees C storm feels like. It is very cold and it especially hurts your face!! We also went for a ride on a hagglund which is the vehicle used to get around in the snow. This was really good fun as it also floats on water.

This morning we set off early as we planned to travel across Arthurs Pass. This is the stretch of road which goes across the mountains from the East coast of South island over to the West Coast. The pass was amazing...as you can see from the pictures. We drove through the mountains, over bridges and through a tunnel. We also drove over two gorges. It took four hours and we had to plan our fuel carefully as there are no petrol stations on the road, but it wasn't boring at all!

So tonight I am sat here in our camper van. We have just been relaxing in the jacuzzi and I am cooking beef curry for dinner. We are studying the maps and trying to decide where to head to tomorrow. There is so much to see and so little time....but I get the feeling that we will be here again pretty soon.

Love to you all from beautiful New Zealand,

Wendy
xxx

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Photos

Standing on the south and north pole!!
Melted ice from both!!