North Wales to New Zealand : Kaikoura

3-4 June 2014

The drive from Nelson lakes took us through the Marlbrough vineyards, glacier valleys, alongside rugged coastline and soaring snow capped mountains.

It was strange to see mountains right along the coastline that hold snow even when it's nearly 20 degrees on the beach.

We stopped along the way to admire New Zealand fur seals, an enormous colony of thousands of Seals, occupying many miles of coastline before arriving late afternoon in to Kaikoura. Before we had even explored what was beyond the road side, we were already impressed by Kaikoura.

The following morning we decided to explore what Kaikoroa is famous for - an abundance of sealife and booked ourselves on a fishing charter with the anticipation of catching something and enjoying the local marine life. The skipper had told us of that they saw a pod of 200 dolphins being chased by an Orca the day before, so we were excited to be going out in to this unique area of the Pacific.

It felt like we were going out to sea with a Pirate when we met our skipper, Nick. He had one leg, walks with a limp, has less fingers than one would normally expect, but instead of a parrot he has a shaggy black dog called Captain Sparrow!

The ride out to sea was a bumpy one and no sooner had we cast our lines into the water, Rob was greeting his breakfast for the second time that day!

The whole day was just amazing. I bashed an Albatross on the head with my fishing rod as it tried to steal my fish, caught a spotted shark, Rob caught our lunch (5 Sea Perch), we watched rare blue penguins metres from the boat and ended the day pulling fresh Lobster from the bottom of the ocean.

Once we got back ashore, our skipper passed us our freshly caught and filleted fish, invited us back for dinner to cook our Lobster and Don (who runs a local takeaway) offered to fry off our fish for lunch.

After eating our freshly caught fish, battered and fried within 20 mins of landing, and served with hot chips, we went to play with baby seals before heading back to the skipper's for a lobster supper. We got merrily drunk and continued on to the pub where we experienced the amazing kiwi hospitality and were invited to stay with newly made friends in Hanmner springs the following day.