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Published: February 22nd 2007
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Well we got up at 6am to jump on the ferry to Picton. A truck turned up first to put everyones luggage in and then a coach came to pick us up... couldn't believe it when the truck drove off with the back door open... again... thank god our bags were at the front otherwise i think we may have seen the whole Sydney bag dropping scenario again!
The ferry was one of the most beautiful ferry journeys i've been on and not choppy at all- we spent the last hour travelling through the sounds (beautiful inlets with clear blue sea and the odd seal popping up to see us).
When we arrived in Picton we jumped on a coach to Blenheim and stayed in someones house that they had converted into a hostel. There was a river running through the back garden and we decided to canoe up the river. We joked about the thought of a huge ferry coming towards us and i am not joking about 10 minutes later a paddle steamer came towards us sounding its horn- we all scrampbled to the side and clung onto the reeds for dear life as it sailed past
with all the passengers waiving... what is it with us...
The following day we decided to do the wine tasting cycle tour through the vineyards- hmm great idea. We hired out the bikes and cycled to Saint Clair for our first tipple, then onto Wither Hills (where we met the witch of Wither Hills who thought we were there to work- wench) down to Lawsons and then onto Montana. They tell you that it is such a peaceful cycle and you have these visions of cycling through greenery... however they fail to tell you that to get to Montana you have to cycle down highway 1 which is one of the busiest motorways in NZ and to be fair is probably silmilar to cycling down the side of the M4. I can honestly say i have never cycled so fast in the whole of my life and when we arrived at Montana we had missed lunch and so the only thing we could do was go on another wine tasting tour!!! I swear i was going to end up in a ditch on the way home but thankfully someone was watching over me. Oh and don't panic Mum i
had a helmet on 😊
The following day we jumped on a coach down to Kaikoura...(longest coach journey ever).. no toilets and i sensilbly drank a litre bottle of water in the morning.. i think it was actually coming out of my eyes at one point!! anyway enough of that. For those of you that have been to NZ you'll know that some of the bridges are quite narrowand there are giveway signs etc. So there's this old guy driving the coach (who was actually evil as he wouldn''t stop off at a toilet for me) and he couldn't quite work out the width of this car pulling a boat in the opposite direction over a bridge. I'll point out here that there was a shear drop off this bridge..he then whacked one of the metal bolders on the bridge.... I am still breathing...just..
We then went on our whale watching tour the following morning... we booked the trip and jumped up at 9am to set off. Luckily the water wasn't choppy however it did take a while to locate the whales. They stop the boat, shove some sound device they look as though they've pulled together with
a washing up bottle and sticky back plastic and throw it into the sea to hear where the whales are.!! I was quite dubious to say the least but i took it all back when suddenly we stumbled upon this 18 metre sperm whale- it was absolutely amazing- you only see about 20% of it's body but it was just so amazing to actually see one, then we spotted some albatroses with a 3 metre wingspan, seals and usky dolphins. It was such an amazing day and well worth it. Oh and fact for the day... a sperm whales heart is bigger than a volkswagen golf... there''s one for you to throw in at a dinner party.
Jumped on a coach the next day down to Christchurch where we are now. I have to say it is the first city that i actually haven't minded being in- i't's got a river through the middle you can punt along, botanical gardens and nice shops, oh and the weather is nice. We are here for another couple of days and then heading across to Greymouth on the train..think i might be boxing some stuff up and sending it home- back pack is a little heavy.
Miss you all
cx
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