New Zealand's South Island - Picton to Kaikoura

Only getting slightly lost on the way to Wellington Ferry Terminal, we made it in good time for the first morning ferry. Not bad considering we didn't have a satnav! (We originally planned to get one for this trip before deciding getting lost isn't always such a bad thing.)

The 3 hour crossing was smooth, and we spent most of it in the cinema room. Yes, these boats have a cinemas! The scenery ahead of us was amazing, as we went out on deck to view the blue skies and mountains that welcomed us to the south island.

View from the ferry

Eels!

 We reached the terminal in Picton, a picturesque seaside town, like a much smaller version of the UK's Torquay - and with an epic mountain backdrop.

From here, the highway south towards Christchurch is still closed following the earthquake last year, so we took the inland route. This took us through St Arnaud and past the stunningly beautiful lake Rotoiti, which was full of eels that could be easily seen through the crystal clear water whilst standing on the dock above it,

Lake Rotoiti

We stopped for the night in a town called Murchison, where for our first night on the south island we were unsure whether the night temperature would be too cold to sleep in the van. We chickened out and decided to pay the extra $30 to stay in The Lazy Cow backpackers. I'm glad we did, becuse this stop was particularly comfortable, like staying in a friend's home. The fire was roaring all evening, and the friendly owner made us banana and chocolate muffins and bought popcorn. We put a film on from the large collection of DVDs on the shelf. There were only 4 other guests staying at this hostel, and it was very homely.

The highway followed this scenic turquoise river

The next stop was Hamner Springs, the "adventure town" of the Canterbury region. Despite being July, this town to me felt Christmassy. There was a chill in the air, and wooden chalet like architecture made up the town's buildings. Much like Rotorua, they also had natural hot pools here, and other activities such as rafting, bungy jumping and quad biking. Joe and I considered some of these options, but as the river was only a grade 2, we decided we would wait for our adrenaline fix further along our journey.

For our next night, we braved the cold, cooked a delicious beef stew and stayed at a campsite just outside Christchurch. We were warm in our sleeping bags, but the air was cold even in the van. it was -2 degrees outside, and the tips of our noses were hard to warm up. We woke in the morning feeling surprisingly comfortable, but all the van windows had iced over - and I mean the inside!

We headed north to Kaikoura, as the route was blocked from the other direction. Kaikoura is a town on the east coast that is best for whale watching all year round, and also home to fur seals and the rare Hector's dolphins. We booked a whale watching boat tour at the information centre, and then took a walk round the coast to see the fur seals, or as we like to call them, "floops".

They were everywhere!

So many of them asleep on the rocks, and even in the car park. Joe almost stepped on one that had managed to fall asleep in a crack in the rocks.

Hmm... I wanted to walk there!

Sleepy floop

Wakey floop!

I'm not dead! Don't step on me!

Couple of floops

Our night here was a lot warmer, and it helped that the caravan park had a hot tub overlooking the snowy mountains.

The next morning, we awoke and headed to the "whaleway station" to board the boat for our tour. The tour duration was roughly 2 hours spent on the water, and during this time we saw fur seals, dusky dolphins, albatrosses and... a whale! A massive sperm whale! He appeared to be sleeping, and stayed on the surface for about 20 minutes, allowing the boat to get about 20 metres from it. Every couple of minutes it would blow air through it's blow hole. And eventually, after a nice snooze, it moved off, diving down and giving us a brief glimpse of that beautiful tail.

Whale spouting

The hump of it's back

Just a glimpse of tail before it goes back down (seal in the distance!)

Sperm whales grow on average to around 15 metres (50ft) and weigh 40,000kg. That's roughly the size of a double decker bus! And this one, as told by our knowledgeable crew, was a well known local male measuring roughly that size.

It was beyond awesome to see this amazing creature up close in the wild, and made the trip to Kaikoura well worthwhile.

Beautiful Kaikoura

Now we're heading back down towards Christchurch and look forward to our next adventure.