South Island adventures

hey guys,

here we are in Kaikoura, New Zealand, on the east coast on the south island. We took the ferry from Wellington to Picton yesterday morning. My travel book wasn't kidding when it said that Wellington is a windy city! Our poor camper was getting blown around all over the place when we were waiting to load the ferry. The ferry was also the biggest ship we have ever been on. Just the inside was like an underground parking garage. Upstairs had tons of lounges to watch movies, relax and take a nap.

We stayed in Picton overnight last night. Picton is a small town, but it was nice to relax for the evening. We left this morning to go to Kaikoura. Kaikoura is wellknown for the beautiful marine life; on the way to the town, we stopped by a seal colony and saw tons of New Zealand fur seals just lounging around. They definitely weren't catching up on their tan; it's not an overly pleasant day today.

For you lord of the rings fans, here is a video we found in new zealand that mixes beautiful landscape and shows some of the film locations from lord of the rings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_HsTzXFf0.

Jason just booked us on a helicopter tour tomorrow to see sperm whales. I have never seen a whale in its natural habitat, and have never been in a helicopter, so it'll be great to do both in the same day!

Some pictures for you!

From left to right: the size of the ferry we took from Wellington to Picton (although we were travelling with a different company), Jason on the ferry in his new All Blacks "jumper", an example of the landscape along the way, one of the beautiful snow capped mountains and a few seals taking a nap