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Photo 1
The view over Kaikoura I'm a little bit behind on the blogs again so a bit of catching up to do! I met a nice girl from Holland in Wellington and we've been off travelling round the East Coast of the North Island so I've not been able to get to a computer for a while.
When I left Catherine & Adams I got on the Magic Bus up to Kaikoura. I really liked it there, it was really beautiful and scenic. I stayed in the YHA. It was right by the sea and the snow capped mountain range so it was an amazing setting. The hostel was ok but the lady that was running it was a bit grumpy and she kept telling everyone off, including me! It was also a good 15-20 minuite walk from town centre. I've fallen out with the YHA's a bit recently and I've gone back into the other hostels, they are just the same price and they can't do enough for you usually where as the YHA seem to want you to be grateful for them letting you stay. Some of them are a bit old fashioned and out of touch aswell.
The first day I was
Photo 2
Me & Ayami the Japanese girl I met on the bus - why do asian people always have to do wierd poses on photos?! in Kaikoura I was supposed to be going whale watching with a Japanese girl I met on the bus - Ayami. It ended up getting cancelled as the sea was too rough so I went and did the cliff top coastal walk instead. It was a really good walk with some really good views. At the start of the track there is a seal colony where all the wild fur seals are just led around on the rocks. There are lots of them and you can get really close to them. The walk took me about 3 and a half hours and I think I saw maybe two people all the way round. I did have a scary encounter with some cows that looked like they were following me but apart from that there was no one. The South Island is really quiet and it's nice.
The next day it rained all day. I'd planned to hire a bike to go to the winery to do some tasting and then go to the sea side BBQ, which is supposed to be really good and cheap but I couldn't get a bike because of the rain, which in hindsight was probably
Photo 3
One of the seals at Kaikoura a good thing, the chances of me making it to the sea food BBQ in one piece were probably quite slim. I ended up getting a shuttle bus up to the winery with two other girls from my dorm Rachel & Jess. The winery was really nice & the tour around the cellar was interesting. The only downside for me was that in the South Island they only produce white wine due to the colder climate, it's not warm enought to grow the grapes for red wine and I prefer red! The nearest they do is a Pinot Noir which is more like a rose really.
The next day I set off on the bus to Picton where most people just get straight on the ferry across to Wellington, but I decided to stay a couple of days as there are some good walks around there and one of the bus drivers said it was worth visiting. I stayed at Sequoia Lodge & I think it was my favourite hostel so far. It was really friendly and they had a free spa pool, free breakfast, a log burning stove & free hot chocolate pudding and ice cream every night. I
Photo 4
The seal colony did a good walk out to The Snout, which took about three and a half hours and had really good views over the Marlborough Sounds & then on the second day I went to the Tirohanga Walkway which went up to a lookout with a view over the whole of Picton and the harbour. The town centre in Picton was nice and there was a really good bakery that did really good pies and when I was talking to a shopkeeper about the walk I was going to do another customer in the shop insisted on driving me to the start! You don't get that at home do you - even if a stranger did offer me a lift at home I probably wouldn't dare to take them up on it!
The next morning I got the ferry over to Wellington. The lady at Sequoia Lodge booked the ticket for me on the internet then I didn't have to pay to go on to do it. Bluebridge were doing an offer for 45$ but they take 3hrs 20mins to do the crossing and they leave at funny times so I got the Inter Islander which only takes three hours and
Photo 5
Sheep on the coastal walk it's 46$ if you book it online. They also run more frequently. The ferry ride over there still seemed to take ages & I ended up feeling a bit sick. I'm not sure but I think I might have just started to be a bit sea sick - I've never been sea sick before but the last few times I've been on a boat I've felt awful and for a couple of days afterwards I've still felt like I'm on the boat. I'm really not looking forward to going on it again on the way back down to Christchurch. I got talking to a nice Scottish guy on the deck of the boat who was also feeling a bit sea sick so that passed the time and took my mind off it a bit. Standing outside seems to help. It was quite nice to do that in Thailand but here it's freezing and instead of coming off the boat looking nice and tanned you get off looking a bit windswept, bright red and freezing!
I loved the South Island and I can't wait to go back there and travel down the West Coast and see the glaciers and visit Nelson
Photo 6
Coastal walk - Kaikoura as I've had so many people tell me how nice it is. I'm sure it will be a lot nicer than the Nelson in England anyway!
I'll do another blog on Wellington, Napier and the East Coast Adventure soon!
Love Rach xx
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NZ looks amazing.
Great blog Rach, the scenery looks fabulous. You sound very active too with your walking and getting about. Good snaps but I wanted to see more!