Hi everyone!

I am happy to report that it has stopped raining yey! We left the soggy West Coast behind and drove the East Coast to find some extremely welcomed sunshine :)

Nelson was a nice little place where we managed to catch up on some very overdue blogging and have a look around the shops before heading out on the road again.

We have done quite a bit of driving over the last few days to make sure we could fit in all our East Coast itinerary, although it doesn't feel like normal driving when you have the beautiful blue ocean on your left and the towering mountains on your right!

The drive to Kaikoura was one of the best roads we have driven on yet and it even came close to beating the Great Ocean Road, where every turn is another pretty bay to look at. It really topped it off when we witnessed the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen, the sky was filled with pinks, oranges, blues and purples…see the pics!

We are so happy we made it to Kaikoura as today we went Whale Watching!

The people at the whale-watching centre were telling us to prepare for high winds and rocky conditions out to sea, which we found it hard to believe, as it was so calm on the shore. However we listened to good advice and both took a sea sickness tablet…just in case!

After boarding the catamaran it only took about 20 mins out to sea for us to be in the ideal area for spotting the Sperm Whale. Apparently just off Kaikoura shore there is a massive shelf that drops thousands of metres and this creates a feeding frenzy for the rather large fish! The captain used his hydrophone to listen for the whale feeding and 10 mins later the sperm whale appeared!

They are massive!!! It was fantastic to see them in the wild and there are only a small number of them around so we were really lucky to see one so close to the shore. Chris nearly missed out on all the action by feeding the fish in the toilets, turns out the sea sickness tablet doesn't work too well, but luckily enough he reappeared just in time to see the whale :)

After this we were taken to see seals and baby pups, which were so cute learning to swim in the rock pools and then we were lucky enough to see the Dusky Dolphins playing in the water and they came and swam right by the boat! Another brilliant day…even Chris enjoyed most of it!

Back on shore we had some lunch in town and then started our way back up north towards Picton ready for the ferry crossing tomorrow!

Goodbye South Island it has been a pleasure :)

Netti & Chris xxx