Next morning we left early for the bus to Kaikoura, a stop off on the way up to the North Island. We arrived, had breakfast and bumped into the 2 couples we had previosuly met on the Tranz-Alpine Railway. They were interested to hear what we had been doing, they had been doing pretty much the same sort of thing, although they had got a helicopter over the glaciers!!!!! We then walked to the campsite 5 minutes out of town and pitched the tent. I did some washing and we chilled out for a bit before heading back into town to have lunch and see the sights (the one road of shops and the beach!). Kaikoura is really a place to do whale watching but funds meant we had to give this a miss. We had a good day though as the weather was good, so can't complain. Back at the campsite Karl and Sam played table tennis for a couple of hours whilst I read more Harry and eventually finished the whole series :( .....my life is now empty!!! Not for long though, I have the first of the Twilight series to read!!!

Next morning we walked into town and caught the bus onto Picton. The route up the coast reminded me of the Great Ocean Road and we saw loads of seals. The driver who gave a commentary told us because there are seals there are often a lot of Killer Whales and Sharks...so I kept my eyes peeled but didnt see any. In Picton we were taken straight to the ferry port where the ferry was waiting to take us to Wellington in the North Island. Strangely enough as we were boarding we noticed that the bus had the 'Pride of Cherbourg' sign still, but painted over. Then we were told it was the ferry which used to run the Portsmouth-Cherbourg ferry route and has been re-fitted for the Inter-Islander Ferry!! Very small world! I came half way round the world to go on a boat that I think I have already been on half an hour down the road!!!!! The ferry crossing took about 3 hours - we just sat, ate and relaxed....nothing special.