Feb 13th cont….
Well we ate robins salmon last night, cooked on the bbq. I started a bottle of wine and ended up phoning Libs at 6.30am there. Sorry Libs. Boys watched a dvd on computer in tent and I cut off my cast, very liberating!
Feb 14th
Jim told me Happy Valentines Day at 730am this morning and then went back to sleep. Amazing considering we are on the noisiest campsite ever and it was hard to sleep in the night how he did it this morning I just do not know. There is a wine festival here in Marlborough County today but we are going to motor on as time is getting a bit short and there is still so much to see and do. Feel a bit sad we do not have time to stay and go to festival as everyone is very excited about it, everyone is very chatty as we queued up for showers and walked about campsite this morning.
We motored through more country/mountainside, scenery stunning but too windy for me, why are mountains curved? The sea here is wild and rocky and rough, very beautiful and it takes my mind off the carsickness, thank god. There is miles and miles of coastline all rugged and awesome. We arrived in Kaikoura and got a cabin at the campsite, settled in and went and booked whalewatching boat for tomorrow and seal swimming on Monday, had a walk through town and then got the car as killer whales, orcas had been spotted by the white rock \Barney, so we drove 15mins and settled down to wait for the orcas; It was freezing, and we saw quite a few seals but no orcas came up to eat them. Never mind, we will see whales tomorrow. We then went to the place Seal Point but we did not see any seals there, looked in rock pools and saw loads of different things, had a competition to see who could get the limpet off the rocks first but no one won as we could not get the limpets off. We also did a few local senic points but it was freezing so we did not do too many. We then went to an Irish bar for dinner, our valentine treat and had a lovely evening.

Feb 15th
Went whale watching, oh how emotional, we did see loads but everytime I think I must have just stood there gobsmacked, I couldn’t help but cry its not something I ever dreamed I would ever see in a million years. Fortunately Jim took some photos and video. I still feel emotional now, how can we allow fishing of these magnificent beasts when they are already endangered. I have realized a dream of mine seeing these great creatures in the wild and I feel very lucky to have witnessed them, I just hope future generations get to see them. As impressive as pelicans, seals, sea otters and everything else we have gotton close to is, these whales just hold such power and somehow promise and hope. I hope they survive.
Jim had told me I would be disappointed and that we would only see the whales from a distance and then we would only see 1, how wrong. The first whale I saw I was up on deck first and it was the biggest of the day, I will never forget and unfortunately all jim and robin saw was when it was diving down and jim never got the camera out. Well imagine just a few seconds later we saw a plume and the boat rushed over and we saw more. All told we see 8 whales today and I had a fantastic, if emotional time. Jim and Robin also had a great time, everything was absolutely perfect, weather was sunny and sea not too bumpy, I suppose we could have seen one breach but I do not mind I saw the whales wild and relaxed, they were not all all phased by the boats and us.
On the way back to campsite I wanted to buy a keepsake just to remember this day, then I thought I will never forget this day anyway so bought a present for the future generation instead.
The weather has turned very warm again, thank goodness!!
Feb 16th
Woke up to rain and wind, so phoned the seal swimming guides to make sure we would still be going and all seal swimming had been cancelled due to the bad weather. (do not think robin and I are destined for seal swimming) Packed up and got in the car so that we could do a few miles. Left Kaikoura and made our way to Waiau where we stopped for a drink. There had been a murder in the village the night before, so the landlord of the pub was telling us, some bloke had had a drink in the pub and gone home murdered his wife put her in the bath and then woke up in the morning and went to work. The kids raised the alarm by going out into the street. The landlord was a bit of a character and we took it all with a pinch of salt and then we were back in the car again. It came over the radio exactly as the landlord said except they were looking for a mr jones in connection to the murder. (the landlord had not told us the name) Well we do bump into them. The murderer was a sheep shearer, well takes all sorts, but I am sure some jokes could be made about that.
Well once again we drove and drove round windy mountains and over beautiful streams and valleys and still we drove until we reached Reefton where we stopped as I had seen a post office and wanted to post some home. Reefton was a ghost town, used to be a mining town and was one of the first places in nz in 1888 to have electricity cause it was so rich from the quartz. It definitely is a ghost town now though, In the car again till we reached Greymouth which was our target today. Tried to get booked for fishing trips and stuff and unable so I went for a walk along the long long rugged stony beach which was beautiful then out for dinner and then read up on the glaciers as we are going to go glacier walking tomorrow or next day if we can get a guide.
Feb 17th
Went for a walk along the beach this morning. How come boys can skim stones and find great pleasure in doing so. It is one thing about them I cannot understand, probably because stones do not skim across the water when I throw them, they just sink. However, my boys had such fun choosing stones and skimming them this morning that we stayed longer on the beach than we meant to. The beach was from horizon to horizon and I could see not one other person on it, just us, it was lovely.By the time we drove to Franz Josef it was too late and too overcast to climb to the glacier today so we have booked a guide for tomorrow. They also would not let us do the full day walk saying that robin would only manage the half a day, I was going to insist they take us on the full day but then remembered jims knees and thought perhaps it would be best if we just did the half day as he has been suffering a bit . We are in a cabin again and its in the middle of nowhere, there is a lot of driving on the South Island