A tiny town in the north east of the south island, the sole reason for visiting here is the promise of swimming with dolphins and whale watching, although these can be tough to do in winter as the seas become rough and the operators frequently refuse to set sail for fear of seasick punters filling the decks with vomit.

As has usually been the case on our trip so far, we got lucky, however, and managed to get out onto the ocean on the first day of asking. Dolphin swimming was first up - a painful 8am start was needed to be able to fit whale watching in that afternoon. We got kitted up in our full body wetsuits; we certainly needed them, as it was practically freezing that morning. Then we headed out into the harbour to try to find a 'pod' or two willing to swim with and entertain us. We were out of luck. Although this was a disappointment to many on the boat, we weren't all too bothered - we had already managed to get some phenomenal snaps of the dolphins 'surfing the bow' of the boat, and we really didn't fancy swimming in the icy water. To top it all off, we even got a near full refund and we had already gotten the all important photos we wanted. Couldn't have been a better trip.

The afternoon whale watching was just as good, with three sightings of sperm whales, a few albatross and even some more dolphins thrown in for good measure. No refund this time, unfortunately, so the dolphin trip probably just shaded it in comparison. More great pictures, though.

Kev