Christchurch - Kaikoura

Getting on the bus this morning I had a new driver - Barber or something! Several people had overslept so we had to wait for them to wake up and get ready so I nipped across to Starbucks and got myself a coffee and croissant for brekkie!

Finally everyone arrived and we picked up from all the other hostels and we were only an hour late leaving Christchurch!

On the way upto kaikoura the weather improved and it was looking good for whale watching that afternoon. Barber called the whale watch at the toilet stop and was told that they were all on hold as they had quite a lot of fog over Kaikoura.

Kaikoura means 'to eat Crayfish' in Maori. So as you can guess the crayfish (lobster) is pretty popular in Kaikoura!

We headed into Kaikoura and the fog was pretty bad but it looked as if it was shifting so our hopes were high!

We stopped at a seal reserve but we didn't see any close up as they were playing in the sea. We heard them and saw them dipping in and out of the sea which was quite cool!

We headed to the hostel after this with the whale watch still on hold so I checked in and dumped my luggage and went to the whale watch station!

NO it's been cancelled! However they did book me on to the 5.00 pm service. I had a fair few hours to kill! I went and had crayfish for my lunch! It was ok but it was cold and I had to use my teeth to crack the shell! I dipped it in Sweet Chilli Sauce and yum that was nice!

I headed back to the hostel and hung out in the garden with PA (Piss Ass) the temporary manager and one of the girls from my dorm. We sat on the terrace for a fair while and then I went on the internet and afterwards I walked back down to the Whale Watch Station for my 5.00 pm whale watch! As I was walking along I bumped into a couple from the bus and they told me that the whale watch had been cancelled as the weather was too rough!

I went and had a chat with the whale watch people and the only other option was that I was to go on the 6.30 watch tomorrow morning, it didn't get back until 9.30 am though and my bus left at 8.30!

Back at the hostel I chilled out in the back garden, tried a gree lipped mussel off the bbq - yuck and then headed to my room. Sabine a german girl was in there in bed so we ended up having a chat and I stayed in my room for the rest of the night chatting with Sabine.