There were still things to do in Hanmer but wanted to hit the road and explore somewhere else, and again the scenery was stunning on the "Alpine triangle" tourist drive, we were in search of Seals and Whales. En-route into Kaikoura we watched the Seals playing in the water it was really cool.
Contrary to what we'd been told previously we found a campsite easily with only a few caravans on it. The pitch was a couple of metres from the shore and we had hell getting the pegs into the ground due to the number of rocks.
Tent up we drove the 16 km into town the buy some Fish n Chips, a New Zealand tradition. We visited the butchers and bought some minted lamb chops and beef kebabs ready for cooking on our little one hob stove when we got back to the campsite.
The meat was a real treat and its surprising what you can knock together on those stoves. After an hour the sand flies again got too much so we sat in the tent with the flysheet down and the door open trying to make the most of the lovely evening.
As we started to drift off we soon realised why the campsite was so dead, we've never slept in the middle of a railway line but we know what its like now! The first time was far the worst, but every hour or so the roaring train rolled by only 30 yards from our head, it was so loud. The main highway (which we knew about before we pitched), which had lorries on all night wasn't a problem compared to the trains, all night long, chug, chug, chug, of a old diesel engine. Needless to say we barely slept, the view out to sea was amazing though.