Hey Guys,

Wow this might be a long one so sorry in advance. In two days we have gone not only from the West to East coast of New Zealand we have gone from South to North as well. All the way from the Tasman Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

When we left you we had got to Lake Tekapo, then we where getting up to go to Kaikoura via Christchurch the following day. Well we had a good and deserved night's sleep and the bed was so comfy we treated ourselves to a bit of a lie-in (well 9:30) before heading off.

The journey seemed to fly by as most of the drives in New Zealand have done and we found ourselves in Christchurch just after midday. As we have been travelling around, we have asked a few fellow travellers about Christchurch and had the radio on for most of our car trips, so we had found out quite a bit about the situation following the earthquake. When we stayed there for a few hours when we first got here; our hostel was out by the airport so the damage did not look so severe. However, as we had found out from various sources, the CBD of Christchurch was still in turmoil, so much so that people who lived and worked in that part of the city had not been allowed back into the area since the earthquake because of unstable buildings etc. Today we found out that over 10,000 homes and a third of the CBD's buildings are to be demolished and rebuilt for safety reasons (only just over 300,000 live there in the first place). So we had decided not to visit but just to drive through, as we are sure it is a lovely city but are quite unsure as to how much access we would have to see the sights.

Just after we had got to Christchurch we had pulled up at a supermarket on the outskirts to stock up on food and change drivers, then we set off again. However as we left we missed our turn off (New Zealand have a nasty habit of not having good road signs in towns) and ended up driving straight for the city centre (error indeed). All we had was a rough road map of the city so we had no real idea where we were heading and eventually found ourselves right on the edge of the CBD. As we had no idea where we could go we found ourselves coming across a lot of closed roads trying to work our way out of the city. After finding our way back to the road we started on we retraced our steps and eventually made it out and back on route. This whole escapade took up over an hour of our day and we both were already exasperated but ploughed on up to Kaikoura, another 2 hours north.

Once we had cleared Christchurch, plus its suburbs the day gradually started to get better. It was another sunny day and the drive north was quite nice, we drove through lovely rolling farmland before ending up on a coastal road skirting up the coast. Kaikoura although a small place was lovely, our first impression was good we arrived early evening and checked in to our hostel which had a large lounge kitchen and even a quiz on that night so we where both quite happy because all we wanted to do that evening was chill out there. As we had arrived with a few good hours of daylight left we decided to make a quick trip to the far end of town where a walk over the headland started that runs alongside a seal colony. Pretty much as soon as we pulled the car up we spotted one just lounging around on the rocks, very happy. Our walk was short lived but when we got back the seals, numbers had increased and suddenly 4 of them were lying on the beach by the car park chilling in the evening sun. The evening was pretty relaxed, did the quiz (second to last despite a winning 19/20 on the final round) had a bottle of wine then had and early night as we had to be up early to see the dolphins.

We got up, checked out, and were at the dolphin centre by quarter to 9. This was because dolphins sleep during the middle of the day so you have to go early morning to stand a chance of catching them in and active mood. We picked up our wet suits had a quick briefing explaining what would happen and how to interact with dolphins then off we went to the dock. Most of the first part of the morning we had been told over and over that playing with the dolphins was not guaranteed as they are wild animals in their natural environment i.e. the pacific ocean. But as with most things so far in New Zealand there weather conditions were good and the crew had already seen two large pods of the dolphins that morning so they knew exactly where to find them along the coast. The type of dolphin we would see were Dusky Dolphins and are only found in the southern hemisphere.

Apparently this part of New Zealand is one of the only places in the world that dolphins stay all year round at their own free will because of a unique eco system below the water. There are large canyons running along the sea bed (about 1.5 miles deep in some places) that allows all sorts of deeper lying fish much closer to the shore than they could normally get, such as whales. These canyons, as well as bringing fish, also bring plankton/krill, which is why the Dolphins stay along the coast. Swimming with them was absolutely fantastic. We had about an hour in total swimming in and amongst a pod of between 250 and 300 dolphins. They were so quick in the water but naturally quite inquisitive to the random people floating on the water so many of them came to say hi. We had been told that when they come close to make eye contact a swim in a circle as they would tend to swim in a ring around you. They defiantly did many times I found myself spinning round in a circle with a couple of dolphins doing loops around me. After a knackering swim trying to keep up with them (would you believe they swim a lot faster than me), we got back on the boat and sailed along with the pod for about 20 minutes (This is where most of the photo's we have are from). Quite often we would see one of them jump up out of the water and have managed to get a couple of good photos of this.

The trip was defiantly worth doing, we even saw a few albatross flying around over the ocean as well. I would say Kaikoura is a must visit place if you want to see fish like this outside of a zoo. I think both me and Katie have become a bit of sea converts seen as when we were little, both of us would rather be at the pool than the sea (Katie's still not that keen on boats tho).

Once we got back from the boat, we grabbed a quick bit of lunch and set off up the coast to a town called Blenheim in the Marlborough Wine Region. On the way, we stopped a little place called 'the store' just off the main road, as the guide book recommended it. We had the biggest piece of carrot cake and some tea in the sun much deserved after our morning activities we thought.

Hand over to Katie to talk about the wine region….

Firstly would like to just add that not only did Martin swim in circles with the dolphins, he sang them songs too...apparently this is one of the ways you can attract them to you; you can imagine how amused I was when I swam past!!!

Anyway…back to wine…we arrived in Blenheim, the town central to the Marlborough wine region, early afternoon and hired a couple of bikes from the hostel for the afternoon to tour around the vineyards (can't do wine tasting in car now can you?) We picked out a winery just outside town that the guidebook had recommended and set off (trying to avoid the double trucks that seem prolific in this particular town!!) After about an hour on the bike it conspired that the winery we'd chosen turned out to be the furthest away of COURSE! Knackered (well me anyway) after an hour of exercise in the sun we went in for our well deserved free wine.The tasting session was actually really interesting - we'd originally thought that the grapes are all harvested in February - the height of their summer - but actually they're mostly harvested next week so we timed it just right.After sampling a few wines we headed outside to the 'wine library', a few rows of vines just outside the main building specially grown so that you can try all of the different grapes (chardonnay, pinot gris etc etc) before they're made into wine.After a sneaky purchase we wobbled back off on the bikes back in the direction of the hostel - would have gone to a few more wineries but the rather slow cycling on my part meant we only had time for one before they shut!! Think one lot of wine garb might have been enough for Martin - he's only really interested in the free samples!!!

Arrived back rather sore (not going on a bike again for a while) and had dinner and our bottle of wine next to the river behind the hostel then had a reasonably early night - far too much activity for one day!!Today we headed up to Picton, the port on the south island, via a chocolate factory just outside Blenheim (cue more free samples and guilty purchases).We arrived pretty early for the boat so went for a bit of a scenic drive along the north coast, along the Marlborough Sounds; the north's answer to the fjords south of Queenstown, just not quite as large (and certainly not as rainy!)

The ferry over to Wellington took just over 3 hours and was a pretty uneventful affair, as it turned out, is Wellington! We got here late this afternoon and got the cable car (more of a funicular railway actually) up to their 'peak' (probably 200m above the city at a push) then walked back down through the (again pretty uneventful) botanic gardens before calling it a day and chilling out in our hostel this evening - the hostel possibly the best part about the city!!

Off north again tomorrow to a national park from where we hope to complete walk-of-death (Tongariro Alpine Crossing) on Saturday - will hopefully have a few good pics if the weather holds out!

Sorry for long blog..its been a while!!

Love Martin and Katie