Baby seals are sooooo cute (more than penguins? maybe)

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Friday, we drove up to the north edge of the south island. Again we followed the advice of that woman from the info in Takaka, and we went to Wharariki beach in low tide. She said that the baby seals are playing in the pools that are left when the sea goes back. And this time she had no mistake. We went down to the beach and there they were - little seal babies playing like kids love to play. They were swimming and doing "flip flops" just like the Dusky dolphins we saw in Kaikura. We watched them for maybe 30 minutes as they were so amazing.
Still in Wharariki beach, there are beautiful rock formations, little rocky islets close to the shore with holes in them - wait for the pictures.
In fact, Erez knew about this from a picture he saw but you don't see them when you go to the beach. So we asked some people there and someone told us to go to the end of the beach and then you see them. It's a good method to look at postcards before you go somewhere, that way you never miss the highlights!
That night we stayed in a HIT near Nelson. HIT is an acronym for Hosting Israeli Travellers - it's an organization of Christians that love Israel (for religiuos reasons) and in a nut shell they believe that the Messiah will come when we convert (or something like that). Anyway they host only Israelis and for free or almost free, and they don't try to convince us to do anything, they are just so nice. This couple we are staying with now are wonderful. It was Friday night and they invited us to a Friday dinner. We were 9 Israelis (two of us and 7 "kids"), we sang some Israeli songs for them... and dinner was excellent. It was a very "homy feeling". We also got an amazing room, all wooden, no way to compare to a backpacker. We stay there 3 nights and wish we could do more...

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Photos

Wharariki beach
At the northern edge of the south island

Friday dinner with Angie & Gordon
And all the other Israeli guests in this amazing HIT