Today I went on one of the trips that I was planning before I left home - whale watching. I went out to sea on a catamaran. The strange thing about the waters here are that they shelve very steeply and go from 50m to 800m deep in a matter of seconds. This makes for perfect conditions for sperm whales. I actually saw four whales on the trip and mananged to get photos of the moment when the tail flips up as they dive into the water. I also have video on my camera o...

The drive to Kaikoura this morning was good. It was through valleys dotted with sheep. I took a wrong turn in a small town and ended up leaving State Highway 70. I ended up on a minor road where I only passed one car. Luckily this took me out onto State Highway 1 which leads straight to Kaikoura. The highway went round twisty mountain roads before reaching the Pacific coast. It then went alongside the Transcoastal railway line. I took a walk into town to the info...

After checking out this morning I drove the 42km to Punakaki to see the pancake rocks. I did the walkway which actually went over the top of the rocks.When I got back to the car there was a large bird wandering under the car and I had to chase it before I could drive off. The birds in New Zealand really are stupid. I then had to drive back down to Greymouth to get onto the Lewis Pass Highway. The first hour was driving through mostly flat land with cattle farms. ...

I spent today doing next to nothing. The rain has eventually stopped but the town is nothing special. I just relaxed watching TV and doing Sudoku. The most interesting thing that happened today was that I met the hostel cat which is the biggest cat I've seen in my life. It is called Fish and makes Fred look like a kitten. It is much bigger than Fred and has long hair that makes it seem even bigger. I didn't make it to the pancake rocks so will probably do that in...

This morning I packed up and checked out of the hostel. Laura and Janelle followed me up to the glacier in the car as we thought we should at least try to see it. When we reached the end of the pathway the cloud had lifted a little so we could see about half of the glacier. The others went past the warning barrier and walked up to the ice. While I was waiting for them to return the cloud lifted and I could see the entire glacier which was impressive. I then drove...