Our last place in NZ! :-(

We have had 3 full days here, on the 1st we went for a trip to Kaikoura to go whale watching. I don;t usually get sea sick but I very nearly spewed a few times on the boat! We went over the massive ocean canyon where the depth suddenly drops for a couple of hundred metres to 9 hundred odd! We saw some whales! The water was pretty choppy so we were only let out when the boat had stopped moving but we saw a Sperm Whale on the surface for 5 mins or so and then saw it dive down so we saw it's tail coming up! Then we found another one and watched the sam,e and then we found the 1st one again! So we saw 2 different ones 3 times! You can't see them that well when they are at the surface but you had see them a bit when the waves are right and you can se their blowhole...you only really get an idea of how massive they are when they dive down and you see the fins! We were on the water whale spotting for a couple of hrs and then on the way back we found a pod of dusky dolphins! There were about 30 of them and they are smaller and much prettier than the ones we saw in the Bay of Islands which were common dolphins. Although they kept their distance more they were much more playful, jumping around all over the place and chasing our boat, one of them was going mad with flips and dives really showing off. I am really glad I saw a whale (that wasn;t on my plate!!!!!) but the dolphins definately win hands down! I also got some excellent snaps of the dolphins and a good whale one but unfortunately someone has changed the language on the comp to Chinese so I can't download them! It was an excellent day.

The sencond day yesterday we went to Lytellton which was also recommended to us by the kyacking man and we saw the port and watched a massive boat leave for Sweden. We went up the Christchurch gondola and went on a few walking tracks, one to the pioneer womens memorial! Then we came back and cooked a delicious spaghetti bolognase!

In the evening we went to a Maori concert in a wildlife reserve. They danced and sang and did the Haka which the men had to get up and do. Brett looked like a Gimp! I had to get up and do the poi which I think I am a dab hand at! They can be quite scary in their war paint and shouting, we got a pic taken with them that's funny!

Today we went on the tram and had a gander around the shops but didn;'t do much else apart from washing in preperation for Oz tomorrow!  In the evening we went to Dux de Lux for dinner and I had some prawns- been fancying them ever since the Huka Prawn farm, they came whole though- eyeballs and all!! Then we went to an Irish Bar for the rest of our last night!!