Today we headed up to Kaikoura. On the way we stopped at Brew Moon Brewery for some snacks and to try some of their beer. It was pretty good. We had a Dark Side of the Moon Stout. We sat outside in a small courtyard, and while it was windy, it was really nice. They are just a small brewpub right on the side of the road, so I'm glad we stopped, and didn't just drive by. It was really nice in Kaikoura. We booked a cave tour for tomorrow, and then went to the Kaikoura Winery for a wine tasting/tour. It's up by the coastline, so it has beautiful views of the ocean. Unfortunately it was a little bit overcast, but it was still nice. We got to try about six of their wines. They ... read more

This morning we got our tire replaced at a cool car junk shop that sold second hand tires (as well as a bunch of other car stuff) and headed north toward Christchurch. We pulled over randomly in Rakaia to use the public restroom at a park, and it was right next to a giant salmon statue, that looked exactly like the giant trout statue we had seen a few days before, only painted differently. This amused us to think somewhere, someone was selling giant fish statues. We continued on, crossing over the Rakaia River Bridge, New Zealand's longest bridge (1,757 meters). We got into Christchurch, got a camping site in South Brighton by the beach, and drove back into the main part of town. We located the i-site and tried to book a couple different activities, ... read more

In the morning the sun was out and the weather was beautiful. We went to Baldwin Street, which is the steepest street in the world. At the steepest point it's almost 20 degrees. We decided to walk up it, because we didn't think our van would make it up. It was a tough trek, but didn't take all that long. When we got back to the bottom, we went and got our free certificates that said we walked it. The guy wrote our name and date on them and everything. It was fancy for being a free thing to do. After that we went to the cemetery we were denied going to the night before. It was huge! It was fairly old, and a lot of the headstones had broken or toppled over. There were also ... read more

This morning we got up and enjoyed the surroundings before eating some breakfast. We were up early, but not early enough to see the sun rise or anything. But it was beautiful out again. The boat has a crayfish pot that they check every morning, so we got to see the crayfish pot being pulled up from the water. There were a bunch of them in the cage....even a small cod shark! The skipper took the shark out of the cage, and tossed it at Adam. It landed at his feet, but he pet him before he got tossed back in the water. After breakfast we started heading back toward the cove. The other ship mate had heard dolphins while she was below deck, and we were able to find them. It was incredible to get ... read more

This morning we got up and drove the Milford Highway up to Milford Sound. Before we left we got some Bacon and Egg pies for breakfast that were awesome. The drive there was beautiful. I really enjoyed the way the landscape changed along the way. We stopped at a few places on the way up (and on the way back too). Our favorite one was The Chasm, where the rocks had been shaped by the water. It's just amazing to see what time does over a long time, and to have some visual proof of it. We had signed up to take a 2 hour cruise on Milford Sound with Mitre Peak Cruises. It was a shorter amount of time than some of the other choices, but it was on the smallest boat for a day ... read more