Then we off on the ferry to the South Island...it's a 4 hour crossing through the Cook Strait and the Queen Charlotte Sound...very picturesque.....we headed to a campground slightly north of Blenheim to stop up for the night.- technically we maybe shouldn't have been staying there...which is why we got a visit from a nice district officer....luckily he fell for the old Irish charm and let us stay the night anyway...on the condition that we were gone by 7am...so Shane set his alarm...and for the 2nd time it didn't go off and we had to rush away in the morning!!! opps....no harm done!!!

We were going to stop into Blenheim and do a cycling wine tour, but all the camping was far away from the town, making the logistics of getting back to our camper home after a few bevies rather difficult. So we decided we had done wine tasting in Argentina and that would have to do us for the moment.

We headed down south towards Kaikoura, passing some amazing scenery and a large seal colony sunbathing on the rocks. We took a walk up a stream to a waterfall where in winter the seal pups head to for play time while their mothers are fishing in the sea!! We camped up for the night ready to head into town the next day. We booked our tours for the next day and headed off to do the Peninsula Walk around the cliffs on the coast. It was a lovely 3 hour walk that we really enjoyed; once we got back to the camper we decided to cool off with a quick swim in the local pool we had passed. Not the cleanest pool ever, but it was still good to do a few lengths.

The next day we got ready to head our separate ways, Shane to go sea fishing and Phil off to spot whales!!! Shane had a good days fishing, even though they only caught sea perch and 1 small shark...on the way back in they stopped to pull up the full cray pots, ensuring an extra tasty dinner for us, and the surprise sight of an octopus! (This was later carted to the aquarium for all to see!!!) Phil meanwhile was further out in the same sea and was lucky enough to see 2 sperm whales breaching. It was really amazing but over too quickly so she wants to go again!!! On our way back to shore we went over to a pod of dolphins which had hundreds in it....was totally amazing to see them EVERYWHERE!!! There are some videos and pictures showing how many there was and how playful they are!!So we both came home happy....and then got an amazing crayfish dinner!!!:)...who says backpackers don't eat well!!!