Heading back up to Auckland

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We drove back along the East side of the South Island. Our first stop was Christchurch but we only spent the afternoon there in the end because there really is nothing to see or do...it kind of feels like walking around Birmingham on a wet afternoon... We stopped at a really nice place called Kaikoura for a couple of days. From our camp site you could see 100's of dolphins far out to sea jumping around, sadly they were too far out to take any convincing pictures but it really was a site to behold. We also caught the day the mutton birds migrated so 1000's of those were flying over the sea too! We had a really relaxed time watching the wildlife, we even had a seal join us for dinner on the 2nd night..

We took the ferry back to the north Isalnd and arrived in Wellington. Steve badly wanted to see a cricket match so we caught the first day of the test between NZ and India. It was a lovely sunny day and really nice coz there is no seating you just sit on the grass in the sun.

Next we drove up to Taupo again because we really liked it there and spent 2 days jogging and sunbathing (we finally had some warm weather!)..Taupo is a really nice seaside (well lakeside really) town to relax in...

It was time to say goodbye to the van in Auckland...we spent a few days staying with Don and his wife and dogs. Don was a South African we had met when doing the Tongariro circuit and we had got on really well so he had invited us to stay with him which was really lovely..they took us to see the coastline around Auckland and we watched movies, ate together and generally had fun.

Steve and I also took a trip to Kelly Tarltons Antartic experience whcih had loads of penguins and fish and you got to plunge your hand into ice cold water and see a replica of Scotts hut.

On our last day we visited Mel at work to say goodbye and Don took us to see 1 tree hill minus the tree before heading off to Santiago!!!

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Photos

A statue!!
Christchurch is quite dull!!