Wine, dolphins and seasickness

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Hello hello.

Well we're now in the South Island the 3 hour ferry crossing was really calm with some good views of the Marlborough sounds as we were coming in. My 2nd cousing Helena-Mary (who lives in Blenheim) was waiting for us at Picton. WE got our bags and then Helena drove us back to her house (about 20 minutes away) where we just had a nice day in a REAL house getting to know her as we've not met her before. She was really nice and cooked all our meals whilst we stayed. It was nice to not be in a hostel. The next day we explored Blenheim town centre in the morning which seems to be full of book shops. In the afternoon Helena offered to personally take us to some of the wineries and vinyards to do a bit of tasting. Debbie recommends to try NZ Reisling which is much nicer than the cheap German stuff in the UK. That evening as a thankyou we took helena out to an Irish pub for a drink and a meal. We had one more sleep in a real house and the following day we caught the train (tranzcoastal) down the east coast to Kaikoura.

Kaikoura's famous for crayfish, dolphin swimming, seal colonies and whale watching. We don't like shellfish so we gave the crayfish a miss so we went for dolphin swimming (though the only time available was the 5.30am swim) with the intention of following that with whale watching around noon. The sea was pretty choppy and I started to feel dodgey on the way out before we'd even started swimming. Anyway we both went in kitted in our wetsuit, flippers, snorkel and mask. There were lots of dolphins, probably around 50 and they happily swim close to you. After 2 swims I'd got pretty sick though so had to give the last one a miss. Debbie went in again for a final swim but she started getting quite bad once back on the boat. It was hard going on the way back to shore as it's rough and the boat is pretty fast. Once back on land we decided that we'd cancel the whale watch, as much as it would've been good we didn't fancy being sick on a boat for 3.5 hours.

On our last full day in Kaikoura we did a 2 hours return walk to see the local NZ fur seal colony. Debbie had footwear for water so she waded over to get some closer pictures. Apparently they're real posers. The next day we got a coach back to Picton as this is where our stray bus leaves from. We've had a quick look around Picton which seems really nice and had a quick dip in the sea. Tomorrow we get back on the stray bus to head down the west coast.

Thanks for reading

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Photos

Mike and Helena
At the vinyard with my cousin who was also our personal guide/driver.

Deb and grapes
STOP! They are not ready yet.

Bo
Helena's excitable dog (not as bad as Del Boy though)

Mike and Deb
AT Helena's in her garden

Jumping Dolphins
Got them at last.

Posing Seal
They love the camera

Deb in Picton
If you look in the background there's a platform above and to the left of Debbie which we both swam to later on.