To get to Kaikoura we had quite a long drive from the AbelTasmanNational Park.We did most this journey in heavy rain and dark clouds, as we travelled across the country via the Lewis Pass (912m) which was a real shame because the clouds hid the spectacular mountains, although we did get snippets of views of the snow capped mountains we were driving past!We also stopped to see the longest swing bridge in NZ, we would have walked over it, except it was pouring for rain and cost $5 each, that's too much money for a walk in the rain!

When the rain finally eased off we stopped for lunch and found a place by the river which had a couple of completely natural hot springs.They were lovely and warm so we dipped our feet in!The only trouble was the sand flies were starting to drive us mad, they really bite you and leave nasty scars because the bites are so itchy, so we quickly retreated!

Our camper is called Kaikoura which in Maori means 'to eat crayfish', so we were bringing the camper to its home town! Kaikoura is an incredibly beautiful place and totally unique as the mountains meet the sea and has the deep ocean very close to shore which is over 1500m deep only 1 km off land.

The rain had cleared as we hit the east coast but the wind had picked up and was incredibly strong. We immediately headed to the headland to go and see a seal colony. We walked for about half an hour and had only seen seals from quite a distance on some rocks off shore.Then when we returned to the camper, I nearly had a heart attack, as under a bush, not 2m from me was a huge seal!We then realised that there were loads of seals sleeping on the grass or in the bushes just in front of the beach, right next to the car park!Some of them even had pups, they were unbelievably cute but really smelt bad!

Not wanting to disturb them too much we went over to the SouthBay on the other side of the peninsula to camp for the night. Whilst cooking our dinner of steak with red wine sauce (who says you have to ruff it in a camper!!) a friendly local couple Ron and Shona, came by and we started chatting.When we told them we were planning on buying some crayfish to eat the next night they offered us some crayfish that Ron had caught whilst fishing earlier that day!This was incredibly kind of them as crayfish to buy would cost about $50 each!!!They invited us into their home later on to collect the crayfish and we had a great evening chatting and having some home comforts (yummy coffee and hot choc drunk whilst sat on a sofa - bliss!)They also gave us some great tips for where to go whilst travelling around the rest of the South Island.A BIG THANK YOU to Ron and Shona for such a wonderful evening!

Monday was again one of the highlights of New Zealand, we went swimming with dusky dolphins in the ocean!We were both a bit apprehensive about this, Andrew because of the swimming right out in the ocean aspect and me because I have never been snorkelling before and can get a bit panicky and claustrophobic about things like that, but we were both determined to give it a go!We were kitted out in full body wetsuits, mask, snorkel and flippers and after a short briefing we were off in the boat in search of the dolphins.It did not take long before we found them and there were hundreds, in their various pods, swimming, doing acrobatics, it was amazing!

When we reached one pod it was into the water we went and it was FREEZING! It took your breath away it was so cold and made snorkelling difficult to begin with, but once you swam around a bit and warmed up it was ok and as soon as you saw the dolphins swimming a hands length away from you, you no longer worried about the cold!

It really was amazing, the dusky dolphins would swim right underneath you, next to you, around you, so close you could nearly touch them and worried they might bump into you!We had to provide the entertainment for them, the more they were entertained the longer they would swim around with us.So we had to dive down, swim in circles with them and make noises to attract them!After we finished the swimming we went along in the boat watching the dolphins swim and jump beside us!Whilst on the boat we also saw two sperm whales from a distance, a seal and several sea birds including a few albatrosses!

We met a couple from Leeds during the dolphin encounter, who kindly let us use their campervan to cook our crayfish on in the evening, they had a proper cooker actually in the camper which made life easier!Andrew did a great job of boiling up the crayfish and then taking it apart to get the meaty bits which was mainly the tail.It was really tasty and even better that we had it for free!We ended a brilliant day with several beers and a game of pass the pigs with the couple from Leeds - brilliant!

This morning we had to get up very early to go on the whale watching tour!Because Kaikoura has a deep trench in the sea so close to shore, it has become a place where many sperm whales stay from juveniles until they are old enough to go off in search of females, who stay in much warmer waters!The tour was mainly a mad search for the whales to find them when the surfaced so we could watch them for a while and then get to see the famous image of the whale diving with its tail out of the water.We saw three whales in total, one was a resident whale called Bertie!! The others were what they call transient whales that are just passing through!!It was an interesting tour and we learnt a lot about the ocean and the life within it.