The Purple Penguin

Hi! Yes, we’ve been enjoying ourselves. Please forgive any typos – I’m very tired and this keyboard is sensitive!

Right, we left Nelson and drove to Kaikoura which is a wonderful place. Really wonderful. We’ve had the best meal of our trip – if you are ever in Kaikoura go to Finz in South Bay. Yum. The service was excellent, the food was even better, and the whole experience worth every penny.

Kaikoura is nice little place. The dive we did was good, but not what we were expecting. We were expecting seals. Lots of seals which we did see on the rocks. It wasn’t until we got out of the water that they said ‘oh if you want seals you want to snorkle, not dive. You don’t get the seals on the dives.’ Well, gee. If we’d known that before we got in the water we would have snorkled instead! By the time we got out I was far too cold to do any snorkling. But we did have a very nice dive – very like UK diving really with lots of life and kelp.

The next morning we got up early and went out on a whale watching tour. Run very differently from any others we’ve done. It was a large boat and we all sat inside while they raced off to where they thought the whales would be. The crew spotted and we sat inside watching informative slide shows or the map showing where we were, the compass heading, and the depth. We were only allowed to get up and go on deck when the boat had stopped. Interesting. But we saw three sperm whales (and I even got footage of them diving), dusky dolphins playing around the boat, and a seal colony. We also saw wandering albatross! Really nice trip.

We got off the boat and headed out for Hanmer Springs. We only spent the one night there so got there, got checked into our chalet (a whole one bed place to ourselves!), and then headed for the thermal pools where we had a soak for about 2 hours. Then up and off the next day for Franz Josef.

We took a slow drive through Lewis Pass and down the west coast. Stopped to see things and just generally ambled down. Just before Panakaiki (the pancake rocks and blowholes) we saw Joe’s penguin sign – a little penguin in a yellow diamond. Yes we have photos. And photos of Joe standing in front of it. We drove very slowly the whole 10Km but didn’t see any penguins.

Panakaiki was interesting and we were watching Hector dolphins off the coast more than the rocks. Well, the rocks don’t move much. Also saw loads of birds. Then we went to Hokitika where they have loads of greenstone shops. Had a quick look and ended up in the supermarket getting lunch for the following day (today).

Got to our place to stay and found we are in a tiny little room – from our own nice chalet to a tiny room barely big enough for a double bed! Oh well, the bar had happy hour.

Then we were up far too early this morning after last night and off for a full day glacier walk. This was hard work! But fun. Climbing the face of the glacier was difficult – the steps were huge. But it doesn’ t half cure a hangover.

Right, this place is closing and the poor bloke wants to go home. So more update later and hopefully some flickr photos uploaded!