It turns out each Stray driver has a strange nickname and ours was no different, going by the name Pinky?! I'm still not sure why he is called that but he wasn't particularly inspiring or interested in showing us New Zealand and with the weather showing no sign of improving and our view being spoilt by the windows being constantly steamed up so we couldn't actually see much let alone take any pictures, we really were beginning to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into and starting to regret our decision of coming here!
 
From leaving Christchurch, we drove up the coast to a town called Kaikoura, which means 'meal of crayfish' . This small town started out as a whaling base and you could say it still is - although now people come to see the whales rather than catch them as their now protected. Whaling was the first big export industry for New Zealand and much of the first European settlement was with whaling bases. The first one in Kaikoura was established in 1842 by Robert Fyffe and the whales were sought mainly for oil. At first, the whaling stations were very successful but in many places whales quickly became rare so the business had slowed down significantly by the 1850s. There are over 79 species of whale and dolphin in the world today: about 34 of these have been sighted in New Zealand waters and over half of these in the waters of Kaikoura.
 
During the drive, Pinky talked us through the activity options for the afternoon or, to be more accurate, activity option! Normally you can do whale watching or swimming with dolphins but they hadn't been able to locate any dolphins to swim with in the last few days and had only spotted 3 whales in the last 60 trips!!! This left the only option as a fishing trip! Matt had been keen to go fishing during our travels but, aside from a little go on Norfolk Island, he hadn't really had the opportunity . At $85, it seemed reasonable as they take you out on the boat, cast some lines out and pull up the crayfish pots, then go back to the house to cook what you've caught and have some drinks! We dropped our bags at the hostel and, along with Ella and 2 other English girls, hopped in the captain's minibus! Now, you may choose not to believe us and we have no photos to prove it but imagine our faces when the captain turned out to be a real life pirate, complete with one false leg and no fingers! All he needed was an eye patch and a parrot to complete the look!! The story behind this is actually pretty heroic: at the age of 18, he was spear fishing when a shark tried to eat the bag of fish tied to his waist. Unfortunately for him, the shark wasn't very accurate with its bites. He managed to fight it off but lost a leg and 9 of his fingers in the struggle!
 
By the time we arrived at the sea, Matt was beginning to have second thoughts about the trip as he had only spotted one fishing rod and he wasn't keen to pay all that money and all have to share a rod . This concern was reinforced when he saw the boat as there was barely enough room for the 2 crew members, let alone an extra 5 people! The deal breaker came though as they tried to get the tractor started to push the boat into the water and it wouldn't start! Not only that but there was no where for us to sit and the boat stunk of fish so, using the sea sickness card, Matt let the guys know we weren't going to go on the trip and a big sense of relief washed over both of us! We got a lift back into town and had a lovely walk through a park where whale bones form arches along the pathway. Feeling relieved not to be on the boat and pleased to have saved $170, we had a little nap before popping back into town to try the local delicacy: fish and chips! This was very brave of us as neither of us are a big fan of fish, with the only one we really know being cod which they don't have here! After chatting to the owner, Don, he recommended we try some Hoki and Blue Cod: they were delicious!!!! Once back at the hostel, we got chatting to some of the other people on our bus: Catriona and Cathal, a lovely couple from Ireland, and Kevin, a crazy German! (We didn't know this at the time, but they were also going to become key members of our Stray family!) As well as, an American couple who were just starting a year long travelling honeymoon and a couple of Dutch lads! Ella finally returned from the fishing trip at about 9pm, pretty drunk and with a crayfish in her hand! Although this wasn't a crayfish they had caught as the pots were actually all empty when they lifted them! To add to the disaster, the engine on the boat had cut out just a little way out to sea so they had to turn back and didn't get to fish at all! Instead, they had just spent the whole afternoon and evening drinking and eating! They laughed about how Matt must have had psychic powers but he said it just didn't feel right from the off so who knows. We had definitely made the right decision though!
 
We went to bed around 9:30pm as we were struggling from nearly 36 hours without proper sleep. We were still feeling very sceptical about our New Zealand adventure but, having now got to know some of our fellow travellers a little better, things were definitely improving!!