This morning we walked to the railway station in Kaikoura which is the base of the Maori run Whale watching organisation. Thankfully it was a lovely sunny bright day and the sea looked relatively peaceful as a coach took us to the Marina on the other side of town.
We settled down in our seats in the special catamaran expecting a long trip out to see but almost immediately we came to a halt . A sperm whale was just by us exhaling on the surface but plunged into the deep to feed fairly soon but we got to see his tail disappearing with a big splash. We moved further along the coast,just a few hundred yards off the shore seeking out another but to no avail. Suddenly the lookout spotted the blow of a humpback whale and we raced off to see him,they are quite rare hereabouts and our guide was quite excited to see it. We then returned to see our first whale resurface before he disappeared again and then went back to the humpback whale. After a quick dash to look at some New Zealand fur seals basking on a rock and generally ignoring the albatrosses swooping around we returned to port. A great day.
We then drove up the coast through very wild and unforested mountains hugging the shore with beautiful Virgin beaches and the occasional road gang mending the eroded verges until we veered inland climbed another mountain pass and entered the Marlborough district. Now we saw acres of well tended vineyards as we had now arrived in one of the worlds premier wine areas. To our left was Cloudy Bay and to our right shiny steel silos dedicated to producing the eponymous wine. No sooner had we booked our campsite we booked a wine tour for tomorrow. Sensibly we have booked a second night.