South Island

22/01
After waking up on the beach, we drive to Kaikoura, a sweet little town with mountain plunging in the sea, it is amazing to have the sea and the mountains together!!! The area is famous for its wildlife: penguins, whales, dolphins, seals etc etc.... On the coastal road, we already see many seals colnies, they are called kekeno here, so close to us on rocky beach, amazing to see seals in their natural habitat!!We look around the town, then have lunch at the view point, watching the black beaches. Fab is still unhappy with the campervan, so we spend lots of time on the phone trying to change it...not working...we got it cheap for a reason: relocation, in fact us driving it to Christchurch is a favour to the company...so we got a deal but we have to stick with it and deal with it!!!! We then decide to go for a long walk, the Peninsula Walkway, three hours walk through cliffs, a lovely peninsula, an amazing coast track, it is truly beautiful and feel serene. We both start to really enjoy the country and its amazing landscape. aftert this walk, we drive around and find a nice spot close to the beach where other vans are parked, this will be our place for the night!!! We have a chat with Collin, our neighbour, again an English man, him and his family left England 6 months ago to relocate here and start afresh, they have been living in the campervan since September and enjoy the freedom of it, while they wait for their house to be built! Daring people starting all over again....inspiring! We chat a bit, he tells us about places we are going to,whee to find free spots for camping at nights, what to see, we talk about England and how they hopoe to become self sufficient here. Nice night despite opur battery running down and our fridge getting warm...horrid smell in the van!!!

23/01
Val wake up really early (7am) and wach the sea while having her breakfast, nice to be so close to the beach. We drive to a better spot to spend few hours there and meet with Collin and its family again!! Fab chats a bit, then we decide to go to a campsite as the fridge is dead and we ned to plug the van to get some power!!! We choose a nice one with swimming pool and hot shower!! The treat!! We find a nice spot on the grass with a table, we wnat to chill out for while so spend the morning there, doing our washing, talking and not doing much...until we got to our whale watching trip!!! As mentioned before, the region is famous for its marine mamals and we really want to see some...the trip is 3 hours ona boat, we sail around the bay, until we see a gigantic sperm whale: so amazing to see it!! It is resting then go again for a plunge...Truly unbelievable!!We then go on to see more seals colonies and some pods of dusky dophins!!! They play around the boat, swim along ...truly magical!!They are known as acrobats of the sea and it is funny to watch them dance and jump in the air! What a unique day!! The whale watchers organisation is very eco friendly and we learn a lot talking to the guide....New Zealand has a law to protect all marine mammals and they ban hunting, it is good to know that most of those animals are starting to recover from the human slaughter and that they start breeding again. An amazing encounter with magical animals, we both feel blessed to have experienced it! Picnic on the beach around 4pm then we go for a walk and decide to enjoy the campsite and its facilities: a swimming pool and some hated little jaccuzi!!! Nice to chill out, we chat to a couple from Dunedin (one of our stops) and then really enjoy the dip!! Nice dinner outside, and off to bed!!