Kaikour-aah!

No, we didn't take that picture, but that's where we are - Kaikoura, NZ.

We made our way up the West Coast today from Hokitika. Click here to see the route. It took about six hours. Kaikoura is an awesome town on the East Coast - of all the places I've been to up and down NZ, this one is my favo(u)rite.. It's famous for its mountains, which rise pretty close to the sea. The cliffs basically drop right into the ocean, meaning the water is pretty deep right off the coast.

The geography of the area means it's frequented by all sorts of great marine life within a mile or so of the shore, and tomorrow we're going to swim with wild dolphins. They basically take you out in the open ocean, put a snorkel on you, and drop you in a pod of dolphins. It's pretty awesome. This will be my third time doing this, and I am ecstatic for the opportunity to do it again. Hopefully the dolphins will oblige and give us a show.. Gina's very excited for it and I hope she gets what she's expecting! We're planning to come into this internet cafe tomorrow after the swim, so we can describe it and hopefully post some pictures.

This isn't the first time we'll see rare wildlife. At the bottom of the South Island, we got to see a wild Yellow Eyed Penguin, which is the rarest species of penguin on the planet. It was quite a treat.

Out on the West Coast, we had a blip - we took a corner a bit too close and blew out a "tyre" on our rental car. We were a bit scared because we were on the remote West Coast. We changed the tire in the pouring rain, and hobbled into Fox Glacier village. Luckily the local mechanic was on duty the next day (a Saturday) and we were able to buy a new tire and have him install it for a reasonable nz$83. Could have been much worse!

Hi to all back home and wish us luck for good weather and for many dolphins! Here's a photo I found on the internet of a dolphin off the Kaikoura coast.

-bob