Hello one and all,

We are now back in Kaikoura after a huge long drive down as we went "the scenic" route! But it was well worth it. We are back here as last time we came we just stayed a night. But we wanted to come back as it's a lovely seaside town and for Gemma to swim with wild Dusky dolphins. We have booked two nights here and plan to spend the entire morning with the dolphins. We didn't book the swim and there was only spectating seats left so we booked them and Gemma went on the waiting list to swim with them. Darren stayed as a spectator so he could take the photos. When we turned up to check in, a member of staff said that there was no places but Gemma could do a share swim where if one person has had enough, then she could go in the water. They also charge less for this so we said yes. We went out on the boat with only 17 people so nice and personnel. After just 15minutes we spotted the pod of around 200 to 300 dolphins and the swimmers got off. They do recommend that you have snorkeling experience to swim with them and we couldn't believe our luck when one of the swimmers who had no experience in snorkeling at all gave up after 5 minutes so Gemma was allowed to go in, yay! Darren got some good photos and Gemma had the time of her life, another dream done she says :o) She was playing with them, swimming in circles and making noises to attract them. They were only inches away from her face and at one point 5 of them swam around her. After about an hour of on and off swimming she was just beaming from ear to ear. It was lovely, ahh! Even as we're writing this journal nearly 5 hours after she swam with them, she's still bloody smiling :o) After the long swim we were allowed to go up on deck and just watch the dolphins swim and flip and do somersaults out of the water. Even though Darren didn't swim, he was just taken away with the beauty of these creatures. This was certainly worth the money.

Tomorrow we start our journey home believe it or not. We head back up to Picton in the North of the South Island to catch the ferry to Wellington on the North Island. We have then planned 3 days to drive up to Auckland where we drop off the hire car (which is filthy now and a fly graveyard on the front) to catch our flight home via L.A :o( We shall do very small journals on the way up so the map follows us. So we will speak to you all soon.

Lots of love Darren, Gemma and George xxx xxx xxx