We woke in Kaikoura where the rain kept coming. The main attraction in Kaikoura are water-based activities. Whale watching, swimming with dolphins etc but the rain didn't entice us. We spent some time doing email and the journal over coffee, and decided we should head North in preparation for our ferry ride across to Picton later.

In a brief break in the rain, we pulled into see a seal colony just north of Kaikoura where we saw lots of pups and adult seals lounging about on the rocks.

We ploughed on for Picton, with the view of having a long lunch near the waterfront. Cerys had a super tasty seafood chowder (a speciality of that region it seems), Stef went for a solid Squid & Fries.

We had to check in for the ferry at 5pm, which would sail at 6pm. The crossing between South - North Island was very pretty through the sounds, and it was a fairly smooth journey. The sunset was also gorgeous. We arrived in NZ's capital city just after 9pm.

We had pre-booked our accommodation towards the south of the city, which was a great location with a car park; though Stef had to masterfully park into a mega-tight spot. We settled in to our apartment and decided it was getting too close to bed time to wander out into the city.