Back to the east coast... and beyond!

So to cap off the account of our adventures in NZ...

Apart from going right up to the top of the south island (we didn't have enough days left!), we found that after we'd been through the glacier region, we'd probably seen the best of what the west coast had to offer. So after driving north a short way from Hokitika we turned back inland and headed to the east coast. The drive was pretty spectacular, rising up and over the Lewis Pass, then dropping down towards the east following a majestic river valley. The weather was pretty damn hot and so we felt that we'd earned the brief stop we made at Hanmer Springs to lark about in the geothermal pools. (I felt that it was very important to have some time relaxing in the medicinal waters before the drive ahead... H).

 
From Hanmer we took the scenic route across rolling farmland on a very winding road to Kaikoura, a 'must do' place, for all the abundance of sea life that comes so close to shore. Many people go swimming with dolphins, but as we'd tried that in the Bay of Islands we decided to give the seals some quality time. Man, it was freezing in the water, and that was with the full head to ankle wet suit and jacket. Effective, if not the biggest fashion statement either of us has ever made! The seals were a little lazy and the water was not the clearest, but it was quite fun to bob around in the sea so close to them for a bit. And the seals didn't seem to mind either.

Kaikoura itself was a nice enough place to hang around for a couple of nights, BBQing steak at the campsite, then sleeping in our tent on the hard, hard, ground. Ouch! Oh how envious we were of all those cosied up in their camper vans..... (more on that later).

On the drive back down to Christchurch, we hadn't even been driving for 10 minutes when on our left we saw a huge pod of dolphins out at sea, but obviously close enough to shore so that we could see them, and get some pictures! Must admit that we felt a bit smug to see so many dolphins and not have to fork out again for a 'dolphin cruise'. The dolphins were heading south, as were we, so we stopped at another few headlands as we drove to try and get a closer look.

 
And after a night in Christchurch, where I scrawled route maps of our kiwi odyssey on some free maps we had acquired and photographed them for posterity, we returned our rental car, and headed to the airport, ready for the next stage of our adventure!

Unfortunately that next part of the adventure came a bit later than expected as our flight to Brisbane was delayed by four hours, because of the lack of a crew. An interesting explanation, we thought... where on earth were our flight crew exactly?

And more on Brisbane will follow.... (over to Hannah)

Robin