We aren’t getting very frequent access to the internet while traveling around the south island of New Zealand, so I’ll give updates when I can.
On Monday we took the 6am ferry from Wellington, to a glorious sunrise (see photos). Had a wonderful breakfast in Picton, then drove down the east coast to Kaikoura, which is famous because there is a deepwater trench that comes up within a new kilometers of the shore, so they have lots of marine mammals. Tuesday we had a fantastic time swimming with dolphins and watching them leap out of the water, even turning complete somersaults in mid-air. Wednesday we went out whale watching, since there are sperm whales that live there year-round. The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale.
Then we drove inland to a hot springs, where we lay around quite happily all afternoon. We also visited a wild hot springs alongside a river. Now (Thursday) we are back up north, where we are going to spend a few days at the beach, before going in to Abel Tasman national park.
More later — see the photos!