So this is my last entry of the New Zealand part of the trip and my, what a couple of weeks it has been!! To top it off in style we went yesterday to Kaikoura, the home of dolphin swimming in New Zealand. I wasn't sure whether it would be worth the money at first, but I decided to book myself on the boat on the basis that it was supposed to be truly amazing. It turned out to be money well spent, as we bumped into a pod of roughly 70 'Dusky' dolphins after a 25 minute boat ride out into open waters. The first swim was slightly frantic, with everyone acclimatising to the cold water and looking around for the dolphins but, after that, everyone calmed down a bit and the next three swims were spectacular. We would swim around with the dolphins (who were completely wild by the way) for a few minutes, and then jump back on the boat to catch up with them when they moved off again. Kim and I made a few futile attempts at using an underwater camera, but the dolphins weren't exactly stopping to give us the National Geographic style cover shots we had hoped for, so we gave up and concentrated on mucking around in the water with our playful hosts. We returned to base sipping steaming mugs of hot chocolate and eating rock-hard ginger biscuits whilst excitedly talking about the whole experience. A while later, via a shuttle bus, we got back to our hostel in Christchurch and promptly hit the pillow. Tomorrow we fly to Melbourne so I'll be in touch when we get there...