South Island!

Lady in red

Christchurch cathedral

Marlborough Sounds

Kaikoura

This little pup clearly didn't want to get in the water, but big Mamma had other plans

Hamner Springs thermal pools poster girl

We got the most expensive ferry in the world over to the South Island, that's Wellington to a place called Picton. The journey was really nice as we went through some areas called Marlborough sounds, which were lots of inlets and islands, oh and we had to share the boat with about 50 cows that were in transit. Lovely! When we got off the boat we joined the convoy of campervans heading south and we hit a place called Kaikoura. It was right on the coast and yet had snow capped mountains right by the water, it was a nice sight to wake up to the next day! We had a look around town and found that it has a seal colony so we spent some time harrassing them like the paparazzi as we checked out the seal pups! That day we headed to the aforementioned Hamner Springs, which is a ski resort, but out of season so lacking in snow. Other than conversing with the locals through banging on our van door, we checked out their thermal pools, which are heated by the thermal activity underground. This did redeem the town as they were pretty cool, well up to 40 degrees, and had a nice backdrop of the snowy mountains. Then we made the trip down south to Christchurch, the scene of yet another demise, and had a look around. Supposedly this is one of the most English towns in NZ, and I guess it does qualify given that it has a cathedral. Other than that it was pretty boring and we couldn't find much to do, other than a market where we tried a typical Kiwi dish, Greek Souvlaki!