Sorry its took me so long to get the blog properly upto date! since leaving chritchurch, i've stopped at kaikoura and am now in picton. i left christchurch at 7am to get the bus into kaikoura so after the big rugby night safe to say i took a much needed nap when i got to kaikoura. not a very long one though cos then at midday i got to go whale watching! and it was an amazing experience!wales are awsome creatures- we saw 3 of them and one surfaced twice, so 4 whale sightings in total. they came up to the surface stayed there for quite a while and then dove back down, which is when you get chance to take some good photos of there tale coming out of the water. after the wales we were lucky enough to see a fur seal and a p-0od of dolphins. the dlphins were so fun to watch, they were jumping around everywhere playing and we even saw 3 little cubs, so cute!i've only ever seen single dolphins before so was great to see them like this all playing together. really enjoyed the trip and well worth the money, great to see them in their natural environment as well!

I spent another day in kaikoura, spent time chatting to people around the hostel and then did the peninsula walk, which took me about 4 hours. only supposed to take 3 but i spent quite a bit of time at the seal colony and sitting enjoying the views from the cliff tops.

the next day i caught the bus back to picton! it feels like i've not been gone for 2 mins but also ages at the same time cos so much has happened :) was really good to see familiar faces again and get back working at slip inn. also now doing the night managers job at atlantis rather than cleaning. whcih means i get my own little flat with double bed and bathroom (with a bath!) ad little kitchen as well!christin, was back from her travels from the soth island (she was here cleaning last time as well, so that was good). had 2 other cleaners here this time Maarten (dutch) and Kendra (Canadian), really got on with both of them and had a good time. At slip inn was Helen, Marissa, Sarah B, Sarah C (n yes me Sarah a- so cool!lol!), danielle, henry, lawson and the campbell and naomi. spent quite a bit of time with naomi n really got on with her, we had a few nights out. i've done a couple of bike rides out to karaka point which is 16k so that was good. other than that i've got a dvd player in my room so i've been watching a lot of films. Rach, Allana, Lynn and Mo are still at atlantis and i got on well with rach and allana last time so was great to see them again but got on well with lynn this time as well so that was nice. Mike came down to visit for a few days so that was nice, gave me someting different to do than watching lots of movies :) by far the best thing in picton i've done this time is the open water dive course, did 4 sessions in the pool and then 2 days in the open water and was absolutely amazing. the first day in open water we went to waikawa bay, the visibility was really bad and nothing much to see but was just really getting us used to the ocean rather than the pool. the 2nd day we went off karaka point and that was really cool! saw loads of spotty fish, a blue cod, loads of star fish and sea urchins, a huge conga eel thats resident there- really big, it let a couple of the guys pet it!! and then also got to play around on a small boat wreck! had a great day, did 3 dives off of karaka point and am now a certified open water diver!! really great- would recommend it to everyone! well anyway that was today and now its my last night in picton so went out for a few drinks and am now off to bed because im catching the 8am ferry 2mora back to the north island!