After the beautiful, warm still evening the night brought rain and wind and the day dawned cool with low grey cloud. We woke early to get to the Blackcat Cruises office as it opened - two cruise liners were due in and we didn't want to get trumped for seats, but even as we looked out on hill/mountain tops obscured by cloud and the grey sea looked distinctly uninviting but felt sure that the dolphin swim would go ahead, that we 'couldn't let this adventure pass...

The bright start to the day that we'd hoped for eluded us and so we decided not to hang around as there was a long drive ahead plus Lake Pukaki had shown us glacial lake splendour instead of Tekapo so it was pack the van and go. We are proud to say that our record of never quite locking everything away or strapping it down remains intact. Can we manage to get through the next few days still missing something out on our pre-departure check?! We'll see! We stopp...