We drove up to Kaikoura on Wednesday afternoon. The scenery was spectacular with huge wide open spaces and mountains on the horizon. I drove the first half which was slightly scary especially when a huge truck thingy drove past early on and threw up a tiny stone at a great force leaving a rather considerable chip in the windscreen. Anyway, we made it and parked in a campsite right behind the whale watching station for the night before taking a stroll around the small town centre (one road, smaller than Queen St in Jers) to look for dinner. Kaikoura translates as Kai: to eat, Koura (pron k-oh-rrra): crayfish. So of course there was only one thing to have but it was really expensive and we went almost everywhere checking the price before we settled on where to eat. At the most expensive place you could only get a whole one and it was $99, about £50! It was delicious though, a really meaty fish. Phil had ribs in protest to the price but did try the crayfish and liked it! Our first night in the camper was fine, we slept well and were surprised with the amount of space we had. We woke up early to be at the whale watch station for 7:15am. They took us on a bus to the harbour and we boarded our bout named Paikea. If you have seen the film Whale Rider you'll know this is the name of the ancestor who rode a whale to NZ, his descendants live in the same part of the country as mine so I was very pleased that we were on this ship and not one of the other four. In the bay there is a huge underwater canyon which due to its shape throws up nutrients which attract the whales to this area so this is where we headed and the captain stuck a listening device overboard to detect a whale. When he moved us closer he could no longer hear anything, an indication that the whale was coming to the surface for air and sure enough we spotted a spout in the distance. Cue mad dash upstairs to the viewing deck, rugby skills in play, while the captain quietly nudged the boat closer. We ended up literally alongside this huge sperm whale called Tiaki, which means Guardian, who just floated there for about 10 minutes spouting water from his blow hole (the only species to do this at a 45 degree angle) before his back arched, head went down and we got that iconic tail flick before he disappeared. It was so beautiful I even felt a little bit emotional! We sped off to try and find another whale but after no luck decided to go back to Tiaki as they knew his average dive lasted 40 minutes and we would see him resurface in the same area. This time we stayed on the lower deck and got even closer to him, amazing to think what we could see was only the tip of his body. Another graceful tail flick and it was time to head back to shore. The view was stunning. When we arrived in the area there was a low cloud touching the tops of the hills and we hadn't realised there was any more to them. As now it was clearing higher up there were snow capped mountains with sun shining on them looking as though they were in heaven with the cloud still below separating them from the hills. We ate the best bacon and eggs on toast I've ever had when we got back and stopped on the drive back to Christchurch to watch some seals we spotted on the shore.