RAIN STOPS PLAY IN CHRISTCHURCH DAY 32: Christchurch The highs of yesterday's amazing events and great weather were brought crashing down to earth with horrendous wind and rain all day long in Christchurch today. After a lazy start to the wet morning, watching two crap movies and one half good one in bed, we decided to venture out for some lunch. And immediately regretted it as we got soaked. We found a nice little cafe with a fire on and we had some thick ...

SWIMMING WITH THE DUSKIES DAY 31: Kaikoura Today we did something that I never thought I would ever get to do. Something I will never forget for as long as I live. Today, we swam with wild dolphins in the ocean. The day started off bright and early with the swell thankfully calmer than yesterday. We checked in, slightly apprehensive, but excited all the same and got fitted for our wetsuits, flippers and snorkels. Not one person looked good in the thick neopr...

NO WAY WE WERE WATCHING WHALES TODAY DAY 30: Kaikoura After Skyping the Thompsons we headed across the road to the Whaleway Station (it's really called that) for our whale watching excursion. The weather was fabulous onshore, and the coastal swell much calmer than the day before so we had no doubt we'd be out at sea today. As we checked in for our 10.30 departure, we were advised that the swell was really 'gnarly' out at sea and that we didn't have to go if ...

MIRROR, WIPERS, MANOUVER DAY 29: Rarotonga, Cook Islands to Kaikoura, New Zealand Today was a 'transit' day to New Zealand that saw us take a four hour flight from Rarotonga to Auckland, an hour internal flight to Christchurch on the South Island, then a two hour car journey to Kaikoura. We also lost a day of our lives today when we crossed the international dateline - most of November 1st never happened for us as we left Monday morning and arrived four hours...