The South Island Road Trip: Part VI: Blank Space

Kia Ora,

12/12/2014 - 15/12/2014   Nelson

One thing you must never do in NZ is trust the weather forecast. We were promised cloud and rain throughout our stay in Nelson. Instead we had glorious sun throughout and so we were ready to rock this joint up!

The Saturday market was a nice introduction to the city and Nelsonians. It was really big and full of nice little trinkets/food- I wish Auckland had this kind of vibe about it.

What's a trip to Nelson without popping in to Jens Hanson, the actual jewelers that crafted the one ring. We actually got to hold a number of replicas, including a much larger ring as wide as my head! Ah I was so happy and half tempted to buy haha!!!

The rest of the day was chilled. The lads of the group (me and Liam) went to find a brewery and tried some local samples. We then met up with the girls later and found comfort in a

The next day we took a quick hike to the center of New Zealand! The hill overlooked Nelson and was a little mediocre compared to what we've done so far. But still, at least we can say we've done it!

We made a decision on the day to visit the Nelson Lakes. They were a little drive out, but once again we were mesmerized. We spent the afternoon by Lake Rotoiti walking, climbing on rocks and trying to throw each other off piers.

Our lunch guest who was way to close

 

Our favourite rock!

That night we were all looking forward to pancakes and it took a bit of French intuition (pardon the oxymoron) to get them going. We were all kept happy for the evening :-)

15/12/2014 - 16/12/2014   Kaikoura

After some very early phone calls on the 16th we set off to Kaikoura. We were able to book on a 12pm cruise, so we quickly packed our gear as the journey was 3 hours. We arrived with a bit of time to spare and were sat waiting for the safety briefing before we were told the conditions of the sea were unsuitable for the cruise. Bummer. However they were able to book us on the 6:45am showing the next day, so this adventure was merely on hold.

And so we had the afternoon to explore Kaikoura and started with visiting a Seal colony we passed on route.

Afterwards me, Dannii, Pauline and Adele went exploring Kaikoura peninsula. I didn't expect to see much of the Kaikoura coastline, but I was very happy that we did!

The girls striking a pose!

In the evening we ate at Tiki Takeaways, not the most inviting name but it was apparently voted the best fish and chip shop in the South island! And they were great. We ate in the company of Seagulls, who Liam brilliantly decided to scare away only for them all to fly and hover all over us. This correctly earned him the Joker card, though he was smug about this one as on of the birds took aim on my shorts. I don't want to put in to writing the words which I'd like to call him! Haha.


On with the big event- Whale watching. The cruise was two and a half hours long and we were prepared to see 1-2 Whales (as is the tour average). Instead, we saw 5 Whales and a humungous pod of Dolphins. There were Dolphins on all four sides of the boat jumping and flipping- it was incredible! There must have been hundreds of them. Better yet, they were Dusky Dolphins, a variety which is found only in NZ. The number of incredible experiences we had on this trip just kept increasing!

Photos don't do it justice!

Any guesses as to what we were actually doing?

We then rushed up to Picton as we had another Ferry to catch to the North Island. As we were pressed for time not much memorable happened. Although I did use Liams own hand to shove a pastry in his face. That was a very happy moment :-)

Kia Ora,

Ben