On leaving Kaikoura, the first stop of the day was at a cafe in Kekerengu. It wasn't much to write home about but the reason I mention it is that it was right on the coast and while we were sitting there, dolphins turned up about 50m out to sea. So that made the annoying half an hour 'tea break' a lot more interesting.

Thursday was a lovely day again, which I was glad of because it mean that I actully got to see a bit of Marlborough Sounds as i went across on the ferry. On the way across from North to South on the ferry I had stayed inside for the whole trip because it was raining and you couldn't really see much. This time I sat upstairs for the first part of the journey, and got to appreciate the scenery of Marlborough Sounds.

Based on the alternation of the weather, I decided to make the most of it being nice when I got to Wellington and had a wander around (just in case the weather was rubbish again the next day). I went up on the Wellingotn Cable Car, which goes up a hill to the Botanical gardens, then you can walk back down to the city, through the gardens. The walk back down comes out at the Beehive - New Zealand's Parliament building.

It turned out that my weather theory has now been proved wrong as today was nice weather too. So I made the most of it by having a wander around the harbour area of the city and then went to Te Papa - the national museum. It was a pretty good museum, but too much information can be a bit overwhelming after a while! I then met up with Lou (who used to live with Annie at Uni, and now lives in Wellington) and we went for coffee. From there, I walked round to the beach and walked back to my hostel along the edge of the water (as much as was possible).