Kaikoura again. Catching up with Kelly and Nigel who have done wonders to thier dive shop and are busy as with the summer season fast approaching.

Aside from popping round every so often (most days) and bothering them, I've seen a lot of Kailoura on foot-the walks around here are beautiful; you can toddle off to the seals down on the penninsula or loose yourself in the inlets in the many bays around here that used to be whaling stations, there's lots of nautical history around here.

I'm staying in the Adelphi pub which is good a) because it's right in the town centre and b) because it's a pub, the only downside is that we don't get restident discount!

We had a rather roudy evening when a group of rugby guys from Christchurch came up for the weekend-you can imagine what they were like when they reached early evening having started drinking from 8am! It made for a very enjoyable evening, and I've discovered that even when playing against guys that can't walk straight-their pool skills far surpass mine-I'm terrible! (I have to be at something I supppose!)

One day I went on the infamous Kaikoura Wale Watching trip-a big boat of you head out of South bay and try to find as many sperm wales as you can. Sperm wales are the 3rd largest of the wale family and the biggest with teeth. They can dive down to almost 1000m and stay down for 2hrs or so-pretty awesome! We saw four in total, though only getting really close enough to two to make taking pictures worth it. It was a great morning and a privalege to be so close to these huge creatures. A great end to my time here.