We make our way to Kaikoura which is a really nice drive as its absolutely beautiful and not too long either..

We arrive at Top Spot.. our hostel for the night! The weather is gorgeous, especially since it has been overcast for a while.. We find our room and we are sharing with a girl from Northampton called Jemma and a european girl who was very quiet, infact almost mute..

Well, we didnt have long because we had to get to the whale watching place within an hour and it was down the hill... (near on vertical) to town! Walked there and paid for our tickets. Watched an introductory video and made our way on a bus to the boat.

Once we got on the bus we took our seats.. front row of course..! and sat while they explained what happens and also a weather report. Well the report was great at first but they did say that they were expecting strong southernly winds but they were on their way but will not be hitting us until it was time to be coming back to shore. So very happy Lisa and Jayne are excited for great weather at last on their whale watching trip!

Well it was amazing... we really really loved it ! and with Lisa's magic camera in hand we got some amazing shots as you can see... we had 2 whale spots and also lots of dolphins which was great! we were so lucky on our trip seeing so much.

But nothing can go completely smoothly with us two can it! come on!!!

Captain Jim got a weather report that suddenly came in ... those winds were on their way early! The crew pointed to the back window of the boat.. the cloud had crept over the mountains and was rapidly catching us.. all of the smaller boats had to rush back to shore as the crew said these are dangerous weather conditions for us all let alone the small boats.

So off we went full speed.. which was pretty fast!! watching the cloud behind us becoming closer.. the waves were splashing over the side of the boat and onto the cabin window.. but for us this was nothing compared to the ride back to fiji mainland after the cyclone.. we actually found it quite fun.

That was until we had realised that we dressed for the beautiful weather we left the hostel in.. oops.. it was FREEZING! the wind was STRONG... and all we could do was laugh... the bus turned up finally.

Back to the centre after a fantastic experience! then we had to make our way to the tourist centre to book our bus back to Christchurch the next day. Unfortunately the bus we wanted was fully boked so we had to go on the southernlink shuttle bus.. great !! ticket booked we should be back in the morning. The weather had gotten worse.. it was raining as we walked back to the hostel, you know the vertical hill..hahaha

We got back to Top Spot and made some dinner as we were starving..took it back to the dorm and started chatting to Jemma. She was great although it was very creepy as she was Lisa's personality double!! so many strange conincidences to go into but it freaked us both out!!

Before checking out in the morning we couldnt find the key.. ahhhhhh it was nowhere to be seen which meant we lost $20 deposit.. sucks but hey ho!!! On our way out Jayne decided it wasnt enough that we didnt have a key they she completely ripped off the bathroom door! yeah oh no! we just left and went down to the town..!

Leaving our luggage at the information centre we got some breakfast in town and jumped on the internet. Then came back to wait for the bus.. or should we say MINI-BUS!!! oh god the seats were tiny! the luggage didnt fit in the trailer so there were bags everywhere and we had a 3 hr non-stop ride back to christchurch! man were we happy to be back in Christchurch!