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We pick up the blogging on Sunday, following the rugby final the night before. Sunday was a fairly relaxed day in Christchurch, well except for me deciding to bike up Dyers Pass to the sign of the Kiwi. Costa had challenged me to beat his time, and I got nowhere near. I had to push the bike half the way. For those people from Lowestoft, Imagine Biking up the ravine, constantly! Hard work. However, I was glad to do it just to get the view from the top again (and two cookies and cream ice creams, what, it was hot work!).
Monday morning was an early start. 6:30am, it was still dark, it was cold, and it was raining. Basically the worst possible start to the day! Had breakfast with Victoria, very sweet, before getting a lift into Cathedral square to catch the bus, which left at 7:20. Met up with Kelly on the bus, she has been with me for two weeks now, so it was nice to know someone, since everyone else on the bus were just starting their trips. We had a breakfast stop at a small town called Cheviot(? - not in my book- ?) but
were largely gunning it to get to Kaikoura. Whilst on the bus, we all signed up for whale/dolphin trips, since this is what Kaikoura is famous for. I hadnt planned on it, but decided to do the whale trip, I mean when would i next get the chance!
We arrived at around 11:30, and checked straight into our lovely little hostel. Very homely, with wood fires and a proper home-style kitchen. Kelly and I got chatting to the other two girls in our room, who were both lovely, but a bit of a shame since it would be our only day with them. Whilst going through the usual things like who, where from, what doing, where been, how long for etc etc, we got a phone call through to tell us all trips were off. Gutted. Apparently the waves were getting too choppy for the dolphins to start doing their tricks, and presumably the same case for the wales, though i am unsure what their tricks are!! This put a bit of a downer on everything, but didnt ruin the day. We quickly made plans, which consisted of getting some lunch (a bannana muffin) and then doing the walk
around the peninsula to the seal colony.
The walk to the seals took a bit of time, probably 2.5hours round trip, but very worth it. The first bit was just along the front of kaikoura, checking out various cute little sea-front houses, and even a cool little cinema, before it takes you around one headland into a second bay, not built on. It was on this second bit that we came across a seal right next to the road, very cool to see them soo close up. Not to be satisfied with this, we carried on to the main colony, and it was like nothing I had exoperienced before. Instead of just laying on the rocks or pebbly beach, many of the seals had actually come up onto the grass around the car park, and some had even nestled in bushes out of the wind, very bizarre. So special though to be able to get so close to them (though the sign recommended 10m!), and get some good photos, without them just blending in with rocks!! On the way back from the walk, the phrase "when in rome" came into play. Part way back, there is a little Seafood
BBQ stall, with proper tables and parasols, so we sat here and enjoyed scallops and rice for $7. 6 scallops and rice for 2.70GBP, mental. Was very nice, though shame the view was spoiled by big rain clouds.
After our ""snack" we headed on back to the hostel for a sit down, and this ended up being the last stop of the day, except for a quick trip to the shop to buy a pizza, since the hostel had an oven, happy days! Most don't by the way! The rest of the day was largely spent socialising with all the other people on the bus, around the fire, whilst playing our own music through the hi-fi, as it had an ipod input. Was a really nice night, just sitting on sofas, in a cosy little hostel, having a bit of banter. Eventually went to bed just after 12, and slept very well!
This morning, we were all up at 8am to get on the bus. The weather had cleared, so we made a quick detour to get some panoramic views of kaikoura and the snow-capped mountain range behind it. Was amazing since the viewpoint was on the peninsula,
so you literally had 360views, with sea on over half of it! The journey to Picton was largely uneventful, though we did watch a very funny comedy programme called flight of the conchords. We arrived in Picton at around 12, where a few of us checked in for the ferry. Everyone else stayed on the bus as they were doing a loop of the south island, which i had finished. Was annoying, as having got to know soo many people the night before, I then had to say goodbye. The saddest bit though was saying goodbye to the south island. What an amazing two weeks I have had, from glaciers to bungee jumps, tramways to seals, it has been truly brilliant. The rest of the afternoon goes as follows: 1.5hr wait for the boat, 3.5hour boat (watched shipwrecked, spongebob and nieghbours, wrote postcards and read book).
Arrived at the hostel in Wellington, the capital city, and I already love it, sucks I only have 2nights here, in the dark. Since then we sorted out various things and had a dominos, since the hostel gets cheaper rates, and good rates at that, challenges pizzaland!!!
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