"Whales and dolphins and seals, OH MY"

The day began with a beautiful sunrise over the Seaward Kaikoura Range. My photos do not do it justice.

The car was frosted over. There was no scraper to hand so Amy scrounged a scrap of wood from the firewood pile and used that instead. It worked. In fact, it's still in the car, just in case.

First we drove into Kaikoura proper and took a stroll on the beach. We claimed part of it as New Grimsby for which I think Claire might have the photos.

And then the real excitement. Whale watching. Sea sickness tablets taken (just), wrapped up in many layers, we set out on the good ship Aoraki. We obviously wanted to see a whale, but didn't expect too much.

We saw a whale. A massive damn Sperm Whale, just lying there on the surface, bobbing in the waves. Many pictures were taken.

And then another one appeared. There. In the distance.

And then another and I couldn't work out where to look so I just videoed it.

And then they all dived, but I missed it because I was on the wrong bit of the boat.

So we motored away and a few minutes later we saw yet another whale. We are now up to 4 BLOODY WHALES. His name, apparently, is Manu and you can tell by the shape of his tail. And this time I managed to catch it as it dived. Just.

Pootled along some more and yup, just bobbing about, is another whale. Which I also managed to catch diving. WOO!

And then, just to top it all off, we came across an enormous pod of dusky dolphins which were quite happy to show off for us, leaping about and splashing and swimming in the bow wave. Didn't get many reasonable photos, but hey, the moment is what matters.

So, yeah, 5 whales. Apparently seeing 3 on the surface together is pretty much unheard of so imagine our glee.

We then tried out Kaikoura's fish and chips. It's good, but not as good as Grimsby. If we move here, we'll have to do something about that. We have also developed a taste for L&P which is sort of like lemonade and generally delicious. Mmmm.

Day ended with a fairly long drive to Motueka. I think I rode the endorphin high from whale-watching most of the way. Best day yet.

"I would appreciate a manky sock"

The day started badly. The ladder of the bunk bed slipped and I pretty much fell out of bed. I've got a bump on my chin to prove it. Oops.

Anyways, once we actually got going it was fine. The sun was overly bright, but the views were nice even if the air was freezing. We grabbed a couple of bad pictures of the pretty side of Dunedin train station.

We had a quick stop at Shag Point, because it sounded funny and it had a lookout. Turned out to be pretty cool because there were fur seals basking on the rocks. I especially liked this poser.

The first proper stop was at Moeraki Boulders. These things are amazing - almost perfectly spherical and no one really knows why. Claire and Amy decided we need pictures of them standing on the boulders so took their socks and shoes off, not thinking that we didn't have a towel to hand. This resulted in them drying their feet off on one of Claire's old socks. Nice. I just giggled and took photos.

We had breakfast in the cafe at the top of the cliff. Very nice and filling, even if the tea went cold really quick. Om nom nom. Egg and bacon pie. Mmmm.

And then there was driving. And driving. And more driving. We finally stopped for a proper break (a while after switching drivers) in a layby to eat yesterday's lamb and mint pies from Arrowtown. They were delicious. Om nom nom again. No need for tea now.

Then there was a weird song about New Zealand on the radio. I will find a link to it when I have chance.

At last, and not as late as we'd expected, we arrived in Kaikoura. Parents will be glad to know that we did some laundry. Hurray for clean clothes. Tomorrow, WHALES.

"What's the NATO for U?"

First major mishap of the adventure. Claire and I were having a booking session. We'd got a trip to Milford Sound booked and then a whale-watching trip at Kaikoura. Aside from a few issues telling each other booking references over Skype, including a failed attempt to remember the NATO phonetic alphabet, everything was going well. Just as I move on to get a hostel booked for our second night on the North Island, we have a run through of what's been booked on what dates so we know who owes each other money.

Idiocy has struck. I've managed to book the whale-watching for the wrong day. Indeed, I've booked it for a day when we're just driving from one place to another. All day. Horror.

A frantic email is pinged off to the whale-watching company, begging (but not begging, because I'm English and it all came out very polite) for them to please change our booking to the day after the one I've booked. Please?

Claire takes the piss out of the situation and refuses to take any responsibility for my idiocy, which is perfectly understandable. I, on the other hand, am glued to my inbox after remembering that it must be sometime in the morning in New Zealand and therefore it's perfectly feasible that they'll get back to me before I go to bed. I am overly concerned about the whole thing.

A little while later, a very short email appears in my inbox. It simply says that my booking has been amended as requested. It gives me the impression that they're not all that impressed with my stupid error, but I think a thank you for the speedy response of the nice lady at Whale Watch Kaikoura is needed.

On a side note, here's the sightings blog from said whale-watch company – so excited! Sperm whales and orca and dolphins and SQUEE!

Note to self – in future, triple check all dates before booking anything.

Shawn the Prawn and his delicious little friends...

Our first planning session in months is underway. Well, I say underway. This is Amy and Claire doing useful stuff:

They're looking up useful things like hostels and things to do at the many, many places we're going to visit. This is what I was doing:

Because all of our planning sessions need to be soundtracked by the brilliance that is Howard Shore. And then it all just degenerated into silliness. Beak the Kiwi got a mind of her own (or rather, Claire gave up doing serious bits):

And then I found the most excellent thing ever when trying to find things to do in Taupo while Claire's throwing herself out of a plane. (Have I mentioned about Claire throwing herself out of a plane? I'm going to wait at the bottom and take pictures of her screaming). It is called the Huka Prawn Park. We are amused:

"If learning about a day in the life of Shawn the Prawn doesn't fire your imagination, dine on some of Shawn's delicious little friends in the adjacent riverside restaurant." Gotta love this Rough Guide.

And then we adjourned for lunch. Which lasted about 3 hours. Then the fun of booking began. So far we've managed to get the hostels and most of the activity/additional things booked for the first week. So the first few days look like this:

• 28th July - Arrive at Christchurch. Be jet-lag zombies.
• 29th July - Slob around Christchurch. Continue to be jet-lag zombies.
• 30th July - Catch the TranzAlpine Scenic train from Christchurch across the Southern Alps to Greymouth. Pick up the car, then do some sightseeing - up north to the Pancake Rocks and then south to spend the night at Franz Josef.
• 31st July - Trip to Fox Glacier. It will be epic. And cold, probably. Very, very cold.
• 1st August - Drive down to Queenstown. Spend the afternoon wandering around the town and admiring the cold, cold views.
• 2nd August - Take a day trip down to Milford Sound (not booked yet). Try not to squee at all the pretties.
• 3rd August - Drive east over to Dunedin. There's not a lot there, so it'll be a nice relaxed day.
• 4th August - Drive north up to Kaikoura. Various stops on the way, including the Moeraki Boulders, which are awesome. It's a 6.5 hour drive, so Amy and Claire will no doubt collapse when we get there.

My debit card doesn't know what's hit it and we've only just done the first week! All the excitement.