Yes, today was the day we were going dolphin watching. We had already checked in yesterday with the dolphin tour and they said they were hopeful that everything would go OK as the forecast was reasonable. So we had breakfast at 07.30 and left the lodge at 08.15 and drove the 15 minutes into town and parked up. Went into Encounter Kaikoura and checked in and got our travel tags and bought some anti seasickness pills as the forecast was for a very heavy swell. Those who were swimming with the dolphins were called through to get changed and then about 15 minutes later the rest of us were called in and we all sat in a small cinema for the safety briefing. Then we all trooped onto a small bus and were taken from the north side of the peninsula to the south side which took about 5 minutes. The 2 boats were actually on the foreshore hooked up to tractors as the jetty is having to be repaired, well rebuilt as the old one was no longer there. Everyone got on the boats they were assigned to and Fiona and I were going to be the last to board, I was just about to put my hand on the handrail to go the step when a chap came from the other boat and said its all off, the weather is too bad. We never even got on the boat! It was back on the bus, back to the centre and that was that. A full refund will come our way via our travel agent.

So we were at a bit of a loose end. We went to the information centre or i-Site to find out what else we could do. We talked to a Scottish lady who arrived here in September and of course the earthquake hit in November and I don't think she has recovered, at least not enough to be acting as an advocate for the town. But she was honest enough, basically there is nothing to do here if the weather is bad, the irony of it all was that on the north side of the bay it was flat calm.

We drove a short distance to a quilting shop but it wasn't up to much. Here I should mention that there are 2 types of quilting ladies, those of a larger build with cats and those of a larger build without cats, there are a few exceptions that prove this rule. We then went to the New World supermarket and bought some provisions and also filled the car up with petrol.

We then drove back to the point and parked up, there was a fur seal on the boardwalk, it had just wandered up from the beach and was taking a rest, there were several others which were a bit more reticent and had stayed just off the walkway. There is a large colony of fur seals and they mostly rest up on the limestone slabs and you can just walk out to see them.

We then decided to have a bit of lunch and so went to the world famous Kaikoura Seafood Barbecue, Fiona had some garlic prawns and I had a crayfish pattie, we then went to the Pier Hotel for some beer but we had some fries as well. By then it was 14.30 so we thought we would head back to the lodge and watch a movie.

Now a word about earthquakes. In the Canterbury region where we are there were 115 earthquakes measure in the last WEEK! In the last year there have been over 7000! Counting the whole of NZ last year there were 36,000 earthquakes detected. There have been 3 detected where we are today between 2.5 and 2.8, and another of 3.1 but sadly Fiona and I have not felt them. Kaikoura was hit in November by a 7.8, one person died but surprisingly around the town there is hardly any visible damage, a couple of buildings are fenced off but the damage must be internal, externally they look fine. Where we are staying there are no visible cracks in plasterwork but when it hit the water tank pipe sheared causing 33,000 litres of water to drain away and the electrics went off. The damage was to the coast road north and south and to the inland road which cut the township of roughly 4,000 off for about 5 weeks.

Tomorrow we have a drive of about 4 hours down past Christchurch to Akoroa on the Banks Peninsula, its made more difficult as we have to go back to Waiau on the inland road as SH 1 south of Kaikoura is closed due to new land slips.