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Published: February 28th 2007
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All was good for our journey to the South Island. We made the short journey into Wellington from our camp site in Lower Hutt and parked up at the ferry terminal a couple of hours before we were due to sail, allowing us to potter around the city before catching the Blue Bridge ferry over to Picton. This included cashing in of Laura's 'Stuffed Kiwi Voucher' part of the 'unique' Valentine card she received a few days early. Needless to say she chose the largest stuffed kiwi to be found. So large in fact it wouldn't fit into any of the shops carrier bags and she was forced to walk around Wellington with it under her arm attracting a few admiring(?) glances. After some thought he was named Big Merv and now guards the campervan when we are not in it. We had heard from several of our friends that the Cook Strait crossing can be quite rough, however the weather was perfect and the sea calm. This meant we were treated to our first taste of the incredible scenery the South Island has to offer as the ferry winds it's way through the Marlborough Sounds before docking in Picton. We
spent the evening walking around the town and harbour, as well as playing the now obligatory game of mini golf (3-0 to moi, however Laura is getting much closer now, will have to retire soon as undefeated champion.)
The next day we headed down the East coast to Kaikoura. Our main objective here was to go on a whale watching tour which we duly booked on arrival for the following day. We had expected to need some flexibility here as we had been advised that the trips could be fully booked in summer. Fortunately whale watching has become something of an industry here and boats leave every half hour packed to the gunnels, and thus we were able to book a trip for the next day.
In the morning of our whale watching day we had some spare time, so once again found ourselves on the local mini golf course. I must have been half asleep or something, as Laura pounded me out of sight by nine shots including two hole-in-ones! (Laura: Travelling Monkey Junior finally triumphs! Ha! Ha!) Not a good start to the day...The ridiculing of the morning was soon forgotten though, when we boarded the
catermeran to view the whales. Various species inhabit the area around Kaikoura during the year, such as Orca or humpback, but at this time of year we would likely only see Sperm whales. We were informed by our guide that on average there are two whale sightings per trip but our luck was in and we got three sightings (albeit seeing one whale called Noodle twice.) Only the very top of the whales can be seen when they are on the surface as they take a breather before making another hour long dive. They remain on the surface for a few minutes fairly stationary except for the a spray of sea water as they exhale out of their blowhole. Everyone then clambers over each other trying to get a good view for the ubiquitous tail shot as the whale lurches forward and then gracefully slides into the depths, the tail being the last to disappear without so much as a splash. To complete our trip we also saw a huge pod of approximately five hundred dusky dolphins performing flips and acrobatics all around the boat, the sea was literally alive with dolphins.
After Kaikoura we moved onto Nelson for
a night where they even had mini-golf at the campsite (obsessed? Us?). A rematch duly took place which saw me emerge triumphant and Laura bitterley swearing never to play again (Alex=4 Laura=1.) The following day we had a brief look around the town, paying a visit to the jewellery shop that made the One Ring (fairly unimpressive and not an elf in sight) before moving on to the Abel Tasman National Park. Here we signed up for a water taxi ride to Bark Bay (there are no roads within the park) and were accompanied into shore by a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Once there we hiked for about two hours to another bay called Anchorage. Enroute we had to cross a river swing bridge and wade across an estuary with the tide fast coming in, this proved to be surprisingly deep as Laura discovered halfway over and required serious trouser drying afterwards. Once at Anchorage we had four hours to bask in the sun on a lovely, reasonably deserted beach, with Oyster Catchers and Grey Herons for company, not to mention the odd pushy seagull. Not often you get to sunbathe on a beach in February.
Next day we
moved on to Westport on the west coast, which boasts its own seal colony. Observed from above the New Zealand fur seals bore a striking resemblance to a certain chocolate labrador we know and henceforth were renamed Oscar Seals. Obviously the resemblance was the colour of their fur and had nothing to do with their roundness and their penchant for lying about in the sun. We were also lucky to catch a glimpse of some seal pups doing their best to scramble about on the rocks and look cute. We holed up here for a night in order to prepare for our first mammoth drive of the South Island which would take us to Fox Glacier the following day.
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