We awoke up on Friday and went straight to reception (literally - I went in my pj's) and we booked ourselves a whale watching tour for the afternoon. Then we went to get dressed and went for a walk around the town, pottering into some of the craft shops which Graeme loved hehe.

We then found a spot by the sea to eat our sandwiches before checking in for our tour. We were first told to sit in a briefing room and watched a documentary on whales. Then we were given a safety briefing on where the life jackets were. We were then piled onto a bus and were taken to the harbour where the boat was and boarded. The boat went at a fast speed out into the ocean where we first stopped by a Sperm whale that was catching its breath on the surface of the water. We watched it for a while before it dived back down under water and flicked its tail up. Apparently that whale will not surface again for 40 minutes.

We then went onto another area and saw a giant albatross and there were also a few others flying around. There was also a seal in the distance that kept waving at us. The boat then moved on to where another Sperm whale was surfacing and we watched that one too. Then the boat took us further to another tour boat where it was surrounded by dusky dolphins. They were swimming and playing all around the boat and before we knew it they were around our boat. There were loads about 500 just swimming around. Soon after the driver started to take us back to shore, with the dolphins following us for a bit which was cool. Thankyou for my birthday present Graeme hehe.

When we got back to land we decided to drive to a nearby seal colony. We first saw a seal lounging around on the beach about a metre away from us, you had to walk past it to get to the bay so we did slowly. We walked around the bay, but the tide was in so areas were tight. We then came to an opening where there was a massive seal sitting on the beach. We watched for a while then decided we probably shouldn't get closer to pass it as it was a bit dangerous, so we headed back. We finally visited a lookout up a big hill but unfortunately couldn't see anything as mist was now covering Kaikoura. So we headed back to the campsite for dinner.