We were awake bright and early and picked up by Lyndal at 7 am for our long trip to Kaikoura. It takes nearly 3 hours to get there but it was a beautiful sunny day and wonderful scenery along the way. At first it was very flat along the Canterbury Plain with plenty of those fantastic New Zealand sheep to admire along the way. It's hard to believe that there are actually a great deal fewer of them than there used to be! The nearer we got to Kaikoura the more we were back in the mountains with windy hairpin bends and rugged scenery. The coastline as you get into Kaikoura itself is breathtaking, especially with the snow capped mountains in the background and it is hard to understand why so many of the roads there are named after sleepy little places in Kent!

The main purpose of our trip was to go whale watching but this was not to be as we found out on arrival that they had just cancelled all sailings for the day due to bad sea conditions far out at sea. We considered other options such as viewing from a small plane or helicopter but we were told that they couldn't guarantee a sighting as the whales are very far from shore at the moment and nobody had, as yet, spotted one today. It didn't seem very promising so we decided to give it a miss on this occasion.

Never mind. Lyndal took us over to the Kaikoura peninsula and we were amazed to see large fur seals basking in the sunshine on the wooden boardwalk and the small, stony beach. There was also one very cute baby seal on show to attract all the oohs and aahs, so eat your heart out all you whales who missed out on being admired today!!

We took a steep walk up to a viewing point where we could look out and get a spectacular view over the entire peninsula before going back into the small township of Kaikoura to do a bit of shopping. We then set off on our way back to Otahuna Lodge. About an hour short of Christchurch we stopped off at the Mud House winery and tasted some (quite a few) of their delicious wines. This is part of the Waipara Valley and is the fastest growing wine region in New Zealand.

Back at Otahuna we were sitting in the sunshine on the balcony of our suite when we experienced our second 'shake'. We clearly felt the backwards and forwards motion for a few seconds and then it was over. Not sure if we could ever get used to it, but it is such an exceptional part of the world that it certainly wouldn't keep us away either.

We enjoyed our last wonderful 5 course dinner in the main dining room and Fiona, once again, did us proud. She and Jimmy had been working very hard all day as there had been an Otahuna cooking class but there were still smiles all the way and we were treated royally as always.

We shall miss you Otahuna Lodge!