Wellington

We have just arrived back in Wellington after visiting Frog's parents, Vicky and Rodney, for a couple of days. We had a lovely time and it was great to finally meet them.. and very nice of them to put us up for a couple of nights...here is us eating the curry we all helped to make!

We also had a brilliant introduction to many NZ fruits...so so many! We have been eating persimmons today..they look like rotten tomatoes but are kind of like a jelly dessert inside..yum!

Nice views on a rare clear day over Wellington

The Beehive parliament building, which we had a tour around

The Cable Car, Wellington...although it was more like a tram! (the cable was along the tracks)

Me and Ben on the Cable Car Vez and Ben Liz and Vez

Wellington and Kaikoura

We arrived in Wellington to meet Vez and Ben, thankfully the weather was in our favour this time as the ferries and the flights were back on track (although Liz still got sea sick on the rough seas!). We went to Tu Papa (if thats the right spelling), museum, we spent most of our time there in the new sections...where they had a multimedia wall, giant map of NZ on the floor, a room that imitated an earthquake etc..very fun day! There was even an exhibition called "we are unsuitable for framing" that i got a chance to look around.
Can you tell we were here?!

The collosul squid!

The view over Wellington...just as the mist came in to hide everything!

Beautiful view on one of our many bus journeys..
Kaikoura

We didnt manage to see the whales, which was very disappointing but there was absolutely nothing to do here in bad weather..we were almost dying from boredom when we randomly bumped into our cousin Mallory and her boyfriend Paul again...such a small world!!!

They took us to a seal pup colony where there were about 50 playing in the waterfall (impossible to catch on camera!), absolutely amazing to see! We had a lovely day with Mal and Paul and were sad we hadnt known they were there sooner!

This was the lookout point, not only for the view but also because there are seals on the rocks

Christchurch and Kaikoura

We're now in Kaikoura, attempting to see some whales but the weather isn't having any of it! Hopefully tomorrow the wind will go down but it's not looking likely :-( we even put aside 3 days to guarantee it but it appears this isn't enough! nevermind eh...hopefully the ferries will be running in a couple of days though, otherwise we will be late to meet Verity (Liz's friend from England) in Wellington. We don't seem to have much luck with the weather here!

Generally we are fine though, off for some fish and chips today :):):) we are going to try the blue cod, groper fish and the Kumara chips (sweet potato chips)..yum yum! Hope you're all okay and that the weather is better in England (i'm pretty sure its warmer than here!)

So so happy we made it to the seal colony here in Kaikoura, it was one of my most favourite parts of our trip..seeing seals in their natural habitat :) they were a bit scary though as they are huge and woddle around pretty fast!!! We had so many pictures, it was hard to pick just a few!

Christchurch cathedral..we didnt make it in last time we were here so thought we should do it this time..stuning windows

Moreaki Boulders and Lake Tekapo

The lovely but quiet and deserted lake Tekapo..where it snowed on us..as u can tell we are wrapped up very warm

One of the amazing dams, there are so many of these and the water is always gushing out impressively!

Can't beat a bit of bus bowling..haha... didnt win unfortunately but it was great fun :)

Moreaki Boulders, on the way to Lake Tekapo, strange round boulders, formed by the sea

Dunedin

Baldwin Street is the steepest street in the world..or so the world records say...just the kind of street u want to climb up at 9 in the morning when it starts to snow....hmm

The beautiful Dunedin train station, lovely tiles and stained glass windows