Day 72 - To the South Island, and With Some Wildlife Treats Thrown in the Mix

We did get up and manage to leave camp by 06:30, from where we made for the Bluebridge ferry port. From here we managed to book ourselves onto the 08:00 crossing and so were straight in the queue to await boarding.

Once aboard we found a couple of comfy seats in front of a large TV and settled down for the 4 hour or so ferry crossing. We sat through a film before deciding to venture onto the deck and see what views were on offer.

There was a lot to see, the usual standard expected of New Zealand with a little extra after about half an hour on deck. The wind was incredible and it was very hard to stay upright at times; we were sure the Captain would call everyone back on board at any moment but this never occurred. What did happen was much better; all of a sudden there were dolphins crossing the path of the boat and all ten or so people on the front deck rushed forward to catch a glimpse of the sleek animals gliding through the waters. Corrie even managed to get a quick shot or two in the midst of all the landscape pictures she was taking. On a high from the dolphin spotting we made our way back inside and waited for the call back to our van.

Once off the ferry we made our way just out of Picton and to Cloudy Bay where we had lunch and a short walk to get some nice views of the coast line.

We then made our way further south, quite a lot further until we arrived at Ohau Bay lookout and where we got another pleasant surprise – fur seals. There were hundreds of them, many of them just pups, and we stood around taking photos and watching them play for a little while.

Just before we got to our campsite for the night, Peketa Beach Holiday Park, we stopped in Kaikoura town and managed to book ourselves onto the whale watching tour starting at about 07:45 tomorrow morning.

Once at camp we then, somehow, ended up booking ourselves onto the 12:30 dolphin encounter which is also tomorrow, where we’ll hopefully get the chance to swim with lots of dolphins.

Back at the van we then prepared at devoured tonight’s mouth-watering culinary delight of rump steak with mashed potato and gravy – this is the life!