Dusky Dolphins are sooooo cute! Today I swam w the Dolphins!!! This was def one of the coolest things I have ever done, I thought you would just be in the water w them and they would swim by far away in the distance...but they get within feet of you and its so amazing. I am placing this on everyones "Must Do" list. It was wicked fun. I swam with...

First of all to fill you in, yesterday was spent in Blenheim, in the heart of the Marlbourgh region. The first plan was to take a walk in the Richmond Ranges in the morning. However, having taken almost three hours up precarious unsealed roads to get to the start of the track, we had no more time left so turned around and came back. However, not...

Arrived Albatross Encounter Office at 9am to find they had cancelled their dolphin tour due to bad weather. Was told that didn't apply to the Albatross encounter as they clearly thought people who watched seabirds were made of sterner stuff! Bought Pat a seasick tablet. No harbour here so you climb into the boat up a ladder on a trailer and they...

When I got on the bus there were only three other people on it. This didn't seem like an encouraging start but the driver re-assured us that there would be more people joining us from the North Island the following day. As we set off to Kaikora, our stop for the night, the New Zealand landscape began to reveal itself to us.To our left were the s...

Still on a buzz from the sky dive I head southwards. The weather gets colder the further south you go in NZ, I find this a very strange concept! After a long hot, boring day on the bus I have quick over night stop in Wellington, the capital city. Next day its off to Picton, the gateway to the south island. The ferry journey across is smooth and ...

Alex & Dean: We came to Kaikoura for the same reason as everyone else - to swim with dolphins. We set out in the boat early (well 9 O'Clock!) kitted out in full wetsuits and hoods, gorgeous. Our boat found the first pod, of about 150 dolphins, very quickly and we all slid into the water. It was amazing, as soon as we put our heads under all ...

Oh my God. I'd some head up on me this morning. Waking up with a de y mouth and the sun blaring in the window. Rotten. Jamie made us coffee which seemed to help a little. He drove us back to our hostel to pick up our stuff and then we set off up the coast to do a spot of fishing. On th eway we stopped off at The Donegal House Hotel, an Irish run...

Back on the bus doing what we did 12 days ago seems weird as the old crowd have moved on, so time to make new friends... Except Nick appeared on our bus as he'd become enfactuated with Carrie a Canadian girl and was following her progress round the country! Once again we went to see the seals, once again it rained a lot! Went to see the Taliband...

Went to Kaikoura last weekend, as it was long weekend (monday was a public holiday for the Queen's birthday) which is where people go to see whales or go swimming with the dolphins and unfortunately I didnt get to do either. The mountains here are so close to the coast and the sea floor drops very deep about 1km out to sea, which is why there is...

The sole reason for coming to Kaikoura was to do some Whale Watching but it also served as a good stop off point before getting to Blenheim. We left Hanmer Springs with a view to arriving at Kaikoura in time to catch a whale watching trip but unfortunately we didn't make it in time. Taking the wrong turn so that we drove quite a fair bit inland ...