I can't believe that my time to leave wonderful Australia has now come. I have had such a brilliant time with, I can honestly say, not one bad day. I feel so sad to be going. No time for sadness though as my next stop is New Zealand for which I am so excited.

The flight from Sydney took me over the Tasman Sea and west coast of New Zealand, over the Southern Alps, finally landing in Christchurch. I spent one night here before joining 'The Magic Bus' - my transport link around the country. The drop in temperature here is noticeable to say the least - not sure as to whether I am looking forward to this sudden change...

My first Magic Bus journey took me two and a half hours North of Christchurch to a small coastal town known as Kaikoura. Kaikoura is renowned for it's resident Sperm Whales. I had already booked my whale watching boat tour and so when the next morning came I was very eager to jump aboard the boat. However, when I turned up at the office they were waiting for the all important phone call for the go ahead. Unfortunately, my trip was cancelled due to rough seas. Still feeling optimistic I booked myself onto the afternoon trip only to find out later that this was also cancelled. There had to be another way besides paying $350 for a 15 minute helicopter flight. It turned out that there was and the solution appeared to me by means of a tiny article in a newsapaper that I wouldn't have read had it not have been for my love of hot chocolate.

'Wings over Whales' was the answer, so I got on the phone and booked a flight for that same afternoon.

The pilot flew the tiny six seater plane over the mass of ocean below and I peered out of the window desperate to spot a whale; I only had 30 minutes. After what seemed like 20 minutes, we were descending towards the sea in small circles - the pilot had spotted a whale - result! The whale was just floating on the water's surface releasing spray from it's blow hole. It was a sight, but I wished we could have got closer - although the 10 metre long whale was right there beneath me I was a little dissapointed at it's size. It may have been a little naive of me to think this, but I honestly thought that the whale would be so big that the plane would literally have to fly along the length of it, this was not the case at all and I actually struggled to see it even with the zoom on my camera at it's fullest. Obviously my perception of size of things on the ground is distorted from the air. I thought that I should give it the benefit of the doubt and maybe when it surface dives and I see that famous tail, that'll impress me? It just may have but, I'll never know; it turned out that we had been flying for an hour and the pilot had actually spotted it in the dying seconds so, as soon as I saw it I had to say goodbye. Absolutely gutted - all I had wanted to see was the tail.