Auckland to Dunedin Day 3

We left the hotel at 6:30 Tuesday morning to get the car to the ferry that took us to the South Island.

The ferry left at 8.  After a quick breakfast, Todd went to explore.  5 minutes later Laura went to find Todd.  10 minutes later Todd came back and asked where Laura went and proceeded to go find her.  15 minutes later Laura came back and complained how hard it was to find someone on a boat.  Shocking they functioned without me for 5 months.

The ferry was uber windy and slightly rocky so we played cards while we traveled between the islands (you could BARELY see the South Island when we left Wellington) and when we entered the channel at the South Island we went on deck to look at the scenery...

Once we hit Picton, we made serious tracks for Kaikoura on the east coast of the South Island to get to our 3:30 whale watch.  Sadly, the tour was cancelled because 10 miles offshore, where the whales were, were also 3m waves (about 10 feet).  Stunk that the tour was cancelled, but we saw pictures of the boats and based on the size of the waves and the size of the boats... we were happy the tour was cancelled.  So instead, we hung out on the gorgeous stone beach in the sun with the snow capped mountains in the distance.

 

A couple taking their Christmas card pictures... trippy

Laura and I had some fun with the rocks...

Laura's tower

Mini Stonehenge - What?  I'm totally not an architecture nerd... I have no idea of what you speak...

We went back to our backpackers via a small door a la The Secret Garden (you'd never know it was there if someone didn't point it out!)

Since the tour was cancelled, we had to improvise what to do for the rest of the afternoon, so we went to look at the seal colony off the peninsula.  A) they were smelly, B) there were only 2 :( but we had a good time playing out on the rocks anyway.

We had dinner at Black Rabbit Pizza, one of Laura's friend's recommendations.  Gourmet meals on dough instead of plate is how Lonely Planet described it, spot on.  We walked around downtown Kaikoura, decided it was worth a slightly longer visit, got ice cream and then went back to the backpackers for tea and more rummy.  A low key night since we had to get up early to try and catch the 7:15 whale watch the next morning!

To give you a locational idea: Laura's pointing to Kaikoura (where we are) and I'm pointing to Dunedin (where we're going!)