The weather in Abel Tasman had been fantastic - the New Zealand summer I had heard so much about but witnessed so little of but as we travelled down to Kaikoura it got worse. I had booked a whale watching trip but had heard the weather was due to get worse and was worried that it may have been cancelled - I went to the whale watching company who said they didn't know if the afternoon trip would run but I could change to the midday one - so off I went.

Kaikoura is the home of Whale watching (actually mose marine life) in NZ. It has the shortest amount of continental shelf in the world - this means it drops off to very deep water (800m) not too far from shore! I was actually in 2 minds of weather to go whale watching because I had done it in Tonga and it had been so good! Bu I decided to give it a go - the company even offer an 80% money back guarantee if you don't see a whale!

So we headed off on the nifty boat out to see some whales - we passed a pod of dolphins but didn't stop as we need to get out to see some whales. The resident whales at Kaikoura are sperm whales. These whales spend a lot of time under the water; usually 45min- 1hour at a time and then 5 to 10 minutes at the surface! So when you find one at the surface you don't have that much time with it!

On the boat trip is where the morning's events (the man vomiting) began to become a trend - the woman beside me started vomiting - although I guess that's to be expected on a boat!

We found a whale and got pretty close - it had already been on the surface for a little while but we did get to see it at the surface and then saw it's tail come up as it descended again. It was cool to see but I think my expectations of what we would see were a little high. Sperm whales don't breach (jump out of the water) like other whales so you don't actually get to have a good look at them! We did see 2 more sperm whales - and it is awesome to see - they are the ??biggest toothed animal in the world! We also saw a sea lion playing in the water - which as I said before I never tire of seeing. We also saw an albatross in flight which was also awesome - the species we saw has the larges wing span of any bird in the world so it was amazing to see it flying around!

I enjoyed the trip but I was a little disappointed mainly because my previous experience of seeing whales had been so amazing including the ability to swim with them! I spent the evening in the hostel chatting to some people! This would be my last night in NZ the following day I was off to Christchurch for my flight to Vietnam. I had planned on maybe taking a walk or something on the Sunday morning but the weather was miserable so I just relaxed in the hostel! Then the time had come to get my bus to Christchurch - on this occasion some had vomited just before I got on the bus and you guessed it - it was the seat opposite the seat I chose!! I went straight to the airport where I killed some time before getting my plane to Vietnam.

My time in New Zealand had been Amazing! 9 long of great times with great people. It was so nice to settle in a place for a while - unpack, have a comfortable double bed, make friends and see them regularly, get to know a new city - it was all fantastic. I also got to travel a lot and see and do a lot; drink wine in Napier, Zorb in Rotarua, Check out Waiheke, Sail in the bay of islands, visit the northern tip of the north island, a side trip to Tonga, live the rugby world cup including seeing 5 games, raft in hawke's bay, numerous days and nights out around Auckland, dive in milford sound, walk the Milford Track, The Tongariro Crossing, Dive at the Poor Knight's Islands, Kayak and dive at Hahei, Spend Christmas and New Year with fantastic friends, Walk the Rakiura track, see the Catlins coast, see penguins at Oamaru, swim with Dolphin's in Akaroa, visit (but not see) Mt Cook, Kayak and walk in Abel Tasman and see Whales at Kaikoura. I met awesome people and am so who really made my time in New Zealand! It was choice, sweet as, awesome and any other kiwi superlative that you can think of. After all that Awesomeness it was time to start the next leg of my adventure…. Hello Asia!