Ka kite ano Aotearoa!

My last few days in New Zealand were ace and whilst it's lovely to be home and seeing everyone, I was very sad to leave.

In Kaikoura, James, Bev and myself went along for whale watching. This is a boat trip (obviously) which takes you out near the Kaikoura Trench, which is a deep trench in the ocean a few miles out from the coast of Kaikoura. It's this trench that apparently attracts the whales to come and hang out there due to the rich supply of plankton and other tasty whale treats.

It was a lovely, warm day and a real contrast from the snowy places I had been to previously. The Southern Alps that are directly throught the middle of the South Island, means that certain places are much wetter, sunnier or colder than others. It was a perfect day to be on a boat.

Several types of whales have been spotted around this area and we were lucky enough to see 4 sperm whales. It was a really awesome sight as you see them lingering on the ocean surface and then taking a dive. You only get to see about 1/3 of their whole size and it does make you realise just how enormous they really are. It was also obvious why they were easily hunted, as we got very close to them in the boat and it just didn't really bother them. They are unfortunately, pretty easy targets. The hardest part, I imagine, is lugging the huge weight back to shore. It was a very good afternoon and I was so stoked we got to see 4 whales, very lucky.

Early start the next day as Bev and James were driving me to Picton and I needed to get my ferry across to the North Island. When we arrived, we said our goodbyes and I boarded the ferry. The crossing took a little while, but there were some great views and again the weather was pretty sunny. Unfortunately, true to form, Wellington was rainy when I arrived. I had checked into a cheap Travelodge due to needing to be up at 3.30am on the morning of my flight and seeing as how I only have to look at Stu to get hammered in his company, I thought perhaps staying with him was not the best idea. It turned out that I couldn't get hold of him anyway, so just as well I did book somewhere!

It was really great to be back in Wellington, as there was a lot of stuff I didn't get a chance to do last time. I rode the cable car from the city centre up to the botanical gardens. That was pretty awesome actually and there was some good views on the way up. I had a walk around the gardens and luckily, it was a sunny day, so I could really appreciate them. At the top of the gardens, there was an observatory with a museum attached. I had a look around that and also saw a really cool show in there, which was basically a projection on a large domed ceiling of what an astronaut experiences during take off and what can happen to them in space (a lot of it isn't good funnily enough). We were also given another look at the Southern Hemisphere stars and constellations. It is currently the Maori new year (matariki) and a lot of their myths are tied up in the constellations, so I learnt a little about that too. Very interesting.

I got the cable car back into the city centre and went back to the Te Papa museum and took in all the exhibitions that I missed last time. Some of these included art work by New Zealand artists and an exhibition on the history of immigration to the country.

I was up at 3.30am the next morning to get to the airport and catch my flight to Sydney. When I arrived, I was told that as I was catching a connecting international flight, that I couldn't leave the airport. This was not good news as I had 7 hours until my flight to London would be called, so had a lot of time to kill. Reading made me very sleepy, so I ended up watching the departures board for several hours and having to see the same Emirates Airline advert repeated over and over again. It was a slow day.

The flight to London was not so bad, although I was sat between two pretty large guys, so didn't have much room. They were both nice guys though and it could have been worse. I felt like shite when I landed though and I worked out that I probably had about 6-8 hours sleep in the last 2 days. Despite my best efforts, I ended up falling asleep after arriving home in the afternoon. The rather marvellous Dan woke me up at 8pm for bangers and mash and I was back in bed and asleep by midnight, so jetlag has been averted thankfully!

Thanks for all your comments whilst writing this, it really made me feel still connected to home and often made me laugh :).

I had a really brill adventure, saw some fantastic places and met some brilliant people. It has completely opened my eyes to the possibilities of travelling and I'm already starting to plan where I will go for my next long term trip.

The above titles means "see ya New Zealand!" in Maori by the way, just in case you were wondering...