kez & hay travels 06

Akaroa, on the Banks Peninsula, narrowly missed being colonised by the French by 2 days, as the Brits got wind of France's plans and rushed to the defense.  This hasn't stopped this beautiful seaside town having a very "a la France" atmosphere, with boulangeries and brasseries galore.  So we felt very much at home here.

Next stop, Hanmer Springs, where the thermal pools are, was just what the doctor ordered.  We spent several hours wandering from one thermal pool to the next sulphur pool.  At first it seemed ridiculous to be back in our bikinis in 2 degree weather, but the pools soon warmed us up.  Apparently the sulphur pools are supposed to be really good for the skin, but how can anything that smells that bad be good for you! 

At last we had made our way around to Kaikoura, where we both hoped to spot some whales.  In fact we were extremely lucky as we ended up seeing 7 whales at very close range, plus over 100 dolphins.  It was really "awesome" to see these amazing creatures so close up, Hayley got plenty of photo opportunities.  After such a successful whale watch trip we decided to sign up for dolphin swimming the next day.  However it was Sunday and we think the dolphins were having a lie-in as we didn't see any.  Can't say we were that disappointed as swimming in the freezing sea at 8.00 am had lost its appeal by the time we were in the boat!

With only a few days left in the south island we headed up to the Malborough region, famous for its vineyards.  We hired some bikes and did a grand old tour of these wineries, sampling wine after wine in full "Absolutely Fabulous" mode.  Oh its a hard life isn't it?

Last stop in the south island was the pretty sea-side town of Picton, where we said goodbye to our faithful car and got used to lugging "Me shell" on our backs again.  And then it was a very early start for the ferry crossing to Wellington.