Goodbye South Island

After I left Christchurch I headed to Kaikoura. I was only in Kaikoura for a day but it is a beautiful little spot. I was able to go whale watching in Kaikoura which was an experience. The said that there was a strong motion sickness warning so I took one of my magic pills and figured that would be the end of it. Oh no. While the boat is moving you have to seat inside and all of the doors are closed, which means no air movement. Heading out to where the whales were meant that we had to break over some waves. So for twenty minutes it felt like you were on a roller coaster. We spotted the first whale. It was a sperm whale and it was a pretty amazing site. We were no more than 50 meters from this massive whale. When it surfaces it only shows about 1/3 of its body but the money shot is when it gets ready to dive again. That's when their tale flips out into the air. I was standing there feeling the motion of the ocean and not feeling good about it when the whale went for its dive. I was speechless. I got a huge smile on my face and decided that this trip was worth it. Then we all had to get back into our seats so we could go see if we could find another whale. Another 20 minutes of the ocean and I wasn't feeling great and people around me were getting sick and I was thinking again that it wasn't worth it. Then we got out and saw another whale that yet again made it all worth it.

At this point we had been on the water for about an hour and a half. They had said that usually they see about two whales per trip. So I was thinking that we were going to head back to land. Instead they said that there was a dusky dolphin sighting around here and that we were going to check it out. For another half hour we traveled around and I sat there having a serious debate with myself. I was feeling ill but I had taken the medicine so the illness I was feeling was probably not physical but mental. So I just sat there and put my head down and took a nap for a bit. When I woke up I felt much better and the boat was surrounded by 100 or so dusky dolphins. I went out onto the deck and the crew members played "What a Wonderful World" over the loudspeaker as we all took in the magic of seeing 100plus dolphins swimming around and jumping in their natural habitat. It was a really great experience that brought a huge smile to my face. All in all despite the motion sickness it was worth it. It was a nice way to end my trip to the South Island.

Yesterday I took the ferry and today I am back in Wellington. I am staying at Ed's house and took today to meet up with the cleaner's from Base and hang out at Eat. While I was at Base I ran into some of the people I had cleaned with and we caught up on each other's travels. It was really good. Unfortunately my stay in Wellington is really short. I leave tomorrow for Taupo. I have already been to Taupo but the reason for going this time is that there is a day walk there that is considered one of the Great Walks of NZ. It is called the Tongariro Crossing. It takes between 6-8 hours and the terrain can be quite steep at times but the benefit is that the environments you cross over are amazing. You go from flatland to walking inside a giant crater to getting a view of some lakes and seeing the Mountain that was Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. A lot of travelers have done this walk and have raved about it so I am excited to finally do it. I will be doing it with another girl a met so it's a bonus that I won't be doing it alone.

So the next blog will be after the Crossing. The Crossing is the last big thing that I have planned for NZ. After that I am just cruising with the bus. Here are some pics to keep you going.

A place we stopped at between Christchurch and Kaikoura.


The wizard!

A whale surfacing


The money shot

One of the many Dusky Dolphins jumping (I feel he was just jumping for me)

The Kaikoura mountain range

All of these pictures make me feel like a very luck girl for having the chance to travel to New Zealand and take them. It's starting to hit that I will be leaving this beautiful country in less than a month. I am excited to see everyone but I am starting to get a little sad that this experience is winding down. But I will not think about it all yet. That's what Fiji is for. For now I will enjoy the rest of my time here and soak up as much of this beautiful scenery as I can. Peace out.