Hello everyone,

After we did our last blog we went to Sullivans Irish pub to join in the St Patrick's Day celebrations. We had a couple of drinks and managed to win a big Guiness hat - which you can see in our photos. The next day we left for Kaikoura on the Kiwi Experience bus. 'Kai' means to eat in Maori, and 'koura' means crayfish (or lobster to us). From here we went on a whale watching tour, where we were lucky enough to see 5 Sperm whales. They are the biggest whales that have teeth, and are almost as big as the coach we are travelling on. Just off the coast of Kaikoura there is a huge basin which is around 2000m deep. The whales can dive down there to feed for around an hour, and with our tour only being around 2 hours long we were very lucky to see so many.

The next day we set off for Nelson. We are staying in a very nice hostel which is above a pub! Sian treated us to a roast beef dinner and a steak and Guiness pie. They also do free beer tasting every day.

Yesterday we went on a Kayak trip through Abel Tasman National Park. We started off early when it was very cold! It got even colder on our speed boat ride to take us up the coast. From our drop off point in the park we kayaked about 10 miles back down the coast past a seal colony. We had to keep around 20m away from their little island as there were young pups around. Later on in the day when the wind changed direction, our guide got us all to form a raft with our canoes and we put up a sail to give our arms a break! We stopped at a few beaches on the way and had some lunch in the sun.

Today is our last day in Nelson before we head off to Westpoint. We have another stop after that where we'll be chilling out before we head to Franz Josef - where we'll be doing a glacier walk. We are enjoying travelling around on the Kiwi Experience bus as there is constant nice scenery. We recommend everyone to come to New Zealand!

Fin and Sian