Dunedin - Christchurch -Kaikoura

We headed for Dunedin the next day, passing through Gore, where I have just found out, is the sheep shagging capital of NZ. Sorry, but a Kiwi told me that so it must be true! We didn't stop there.

Can't tell you much about Dunedin other than the 5 "sports" bars we stopped at were not showing the England match. False advertising or what?!

We did eventually find one and it had a big fire and big comfy sofas and lots of booze, sorted.

And that's all we did in Dunedin.

The following day we decided to head back to Christchurch instead of stopping another day somewhere random. This turned out to be a very wise decision.

It was nice and warm in Christchurch when we arrived and we even opted to turn the heater off for the night as it was too warm to keep it on. The next morning was a different story. We woke up to snow and the whole of Christchurch in turmoil.

Now there wasn't a lot of snow in the city but the way everyone reacted you'd have thought there was about 6 metres on the ground. When we were wondering around in the afternoon there were loads of shops and cafes that had just not opened because the owners didn't want to get there feet wet!!!

Down in the south where we had just come from was a little different. They'd received their worse snow fall in about 80 years and loads of roads were blocked (including ones we had driven on the day before) and the power had come down in a lot of areas. We definitely made the right decision to get back when we did.

And then Emma left me. Went off to Shanghai to meet some bloke. Hope he can manage to keep her away from the All You Can Eat buffets!!

Since then I have been partying, I mean, crying, but trying to make the best of it it!

I'm now in Kaikoura and it's really cold here.

Last night was spent in the pub with Jen, a Canadian girl who I am sharing a dorm with.

Today I managed to make it on a whale tour and we saw about 7 Sperm Whales. You only get to see the tops of them which only accounts for about 20%, the rest stays underwater until they decide to dive and then the tail flips up. It was a really good trip and we were lucky to see so many and even get out there at all as the sea has been so rough that they've had to cancel loads of tours. They cancelled the tour after ours.

Interesting (?!) fact about Sperm Whales - They got their name from early whalers who caught one and killed it and then chopped a bit of it's head off. Out oozed 2.5 tonnes of thick white sticky substance that they presumed to be semen. oh dear... And so they named it the Sperm Whale. Anyway, of course it wasn't, it was just oil that they have in their heads to help them dive and resurface and stuff.

Not much else happening in Kaikoura so I'll be moving on on Tuesday.

Next stop Blenheim