When we left Spring creek this morning we popped up to Picton , the entrance to the south island where Rob and I arrived by ferry almost two weeks ago. As wee have a bit more time on our hands for our last few days we thought it would be nice to do a bit of a walk out from the harbour along Bob's track to get a look at Queen Charlotte Sound.
We also saw the ferry traveling past on its way to the North Island...
It was a comfortable hour long walk and we polished it off with a coffee aboard the echo, a .... sailing boat that is moored in the harbour.
As we passed back through Spring Creek on our way South we did a small detour back to Forrest winery to resample their sauvignon blanc and Eric bought a bottle for us to have with dinner back in Christchurch on Sunday night.
Our next stop was for lunch. On our way through a few weeks before Rob and I had coffee at The Store, a gorgeous coast side restaurant and so we decided to have lunch there today. I had seafood chowder, yum.
Finally, we couldn't resist stopping at the fur seal colony en route to climb on the rocks and watch them sloth about.
We eventually arrived in Kaikoura by 4pm and headed straight to the dolphin watching office to find out about the forecast for the next day as we have a trip booked tomorrow to go swimming with the dolphins. We had heard that bad weather was on the way and so were preparing ourselves for a cancellation. Sure enough a strong southerly wind is expected which will make big waves on the side of the peninsula that they take you out. However no decisions will be made until 5.30am tomorrow morning and so we still have to set our alarm for then to get up, call in to check and rush over if it is going ahead. If it is cancelled we'll go back to sleep, they will give us a refund and I'll have to be brave and get over the devastation (this is number one excitement for me). But I am being very positive about it and not bratty, and we have planned a consolation plan of surfing if we can't go (an appropriate use of the swell we think).
After establishing this we had a little wander through town and bought a few souvenirs. Kaikoura is a happy little waterside town and is quite set up for visitors with small gift shops, lovely looking cafes and inviting pubs. We're going to sample the pubs and have dinner out tomorrow so this was our last evening meal together in the van. Our camp is very very nice and even has a hot pool with we soaked in outside in the rain before a tasty fish supper and a traditional game of cards. An early night is essential tonight so we can get up at 5am for the moment of truth re our dolphin trip.
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