During the final week of our time in New Zealand we settled into our little cabin after one final nights stay in the van on the 1st. We met our Swiss friends at their hostel on the 2nd with hopes of getting to a Post Office to exchange ownership details. It was still classed as the Public Holidays and we were told nothing would be open until the 4th!

This did put a little spanner in the works but fortunately for us we had already picked up the ownership forms when we first got the van and so back at our camp we all sat around the table exchanging details and for that night they decided to stay at our holiday park. We figured that the next morning if nothing was going to be open we would let them leave with “Po” and trust them to complete the ownership changeover without us being there to witness it. We did this too when we bought the van but it is recommended that you don’t let the van go until you see proof of change, however there had to be some lenience as otherwise they’d be having to stay with us for the next 2 days.

After money was exchanged and forms signed we handed over the keys and retreated in our cabin! The night before we’d experienced a 5.5 earthquake when we were in the van and more were happening throughout the day. When our Swiss friends eventually left the next morning with “Po” we waved them goodbye and were ready for a week of not really doing much.

The cabin was a good space with bunk beds, a desk, chairs, a fridge and some drawers we were being spoiled with all this space! The only problem was that most of the tremors were taking place around 10km away from us at sea and so we felt nearly all of them most of the time. It was an unsettling week of aftershocks having never experienced anything like this before, and before long we were guessing the scale of the shock followed by Dave who would look it up on GeoNet A website which updates every 5 minutes after each tremor.

During that week we took the number 5 bus nearly every day to either do a little shop, change money or go to the beach. One day we went to the Christchurch Museum in the CBD, it reopened in September and is host to historical and contemporary artefacts. The same day we walked around the gated closed off area of the city centre. It sits still like a ghost-town with a few people photographing what they see. Its a sad state of affairs as the city can’t really move on with all the aftershocks taking place and it’s going to take a long time for the recovery. We really hope that something positive starts to happen as we could tell it was taking its toll on people who live there.

One little spark of positivity comes out of the Cashel Street Restart, a purpose made shopping area of shipping containers located the fringe of the city. It actually looks really cool and has coffee shops, some eateries, fashion and gift shops. There was a little hive of activity going on but as Dave said with an air of sombreness.

Back on our side of the city we enjoyed a day at Sumner Beach which sadly has also been badly affected by the earthquakes. The beach itself is fine but the houses on the cliff tops…not so good. We watched surfers waiting for big waves and Helen had a bit of a beach day, although the sun didn’t really come out.

Towards the end of the week we managed to meet up with our friends Vic and Dave and enjoyed a walk around the Botanical Gardens followed by a tasty pub dinner in one of the pubs still open in the area. It was lovely to see them again and we look forward to hanging out with them in Melbourne further on in our travels.

And that was that, we were waken nightly by earthquakes and on the last night we experienced a 5.2 which felt far worse being in our cabin than a 5.5 in the van. Helen panicked and thought we would be stuck out in Brighton, unable to get the shuttle to the airport in the morning, but alas at 7.30am when the shuttle arrived we knew we would be getting to our flight out.

We were definitely ready to leave after what felt like a long week but sad to say goodbye to a country we have loved travelling in and enjoyed and now have such a bank of memorable occasions and places. New Zealand is a real treat, a home from home, safe, clean, beuatiful and very welcoming.

Next stop, Sydney, Australia.

(Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

On our way to Kaikoura we drove into Christchurch and started putting the wheels in motion for the sale of our wonderful van ‘Po’. Dave had designed some really cool posters ad we decided to print them onto yellow paper so that they would stand out…sneaky!

Most of the hostels are located around the CBD which is now completely closed off from the public since the February 2011 earthquake. It’s a disaster zone and as it was over New Year it was eerily quiet. Still we managed to find the hostels and could see many backpackers were still staying in Christchurch, although we weren’t met with much enthusiasm from the staff members who wished us good luck in the sale of the van. Posters went up in around 8 hostels including The Old Countryhouse, The Jailhouse, Kiwi Backpackers, Vagabonds and a few more we can’t remember. Along with the posters we had an advert on Gumtree and on the Backpackersboard.co.nz.

After a long day we stopped over at Brighton South Holiday Park on the coast, and during the night we had our first taste of the Christchurch aftershocks that have been taking place all year. Helen thought someone was shaking the van! Before we went to bed though we had a few calls from people interested in viewing the van and we booked them in for the next day.

The following morning we washed and cleaned Po as much as we could with a bucket and sponge and a dustpan and brush. We worked hard. At midday we met our prospective buyers, the first couple didn’t seem too over-thrown by Po and her magic, we think they were after something more modern. Their honest offer at $3400 though was way below our ideal and so we moved onto our next appointment. It was only down the road at The Old Countryhouse and we were met by 3 Swiss travellers looking for a van that would fit all 3 of them. We could tell straight away that they were keen on the van and it was perfect for them as it still has the first row of passenger seats in the back. After a test-drive and a little bit of bargaining we agreed on a sale price of $4050. Result! Having bought the van for $3800 we were making some profit.

We were holding onto the van until after the weekend so that we could get our trip up to Kaikoura in and decided that the following week we would take advantage of the cheap accommodation on offer at the holiday park and booked into a cabin for the final week of our stay in New Zealand. The owners offered us 10% discount from $48 a night, if we stayed for a week, this worked out to be far cheaper than staying in any hostels in town and the transport links are good from that area.

To see what we did for New Year visit the Kaikoura post.

The first of January 2012! Happy New Year to all who read our blog, we really appreciate you! We didn’t start our new year with hangovers, nor did we go out the night before and party in busy Kaikoura. Instead we opted for a quiet start to 2012, we did enjoy a few drinks in the town including some generous free wine sampling, but decided to head back to our van to cosy up ready to see in the New Year together.

The main reason for us not going out and getting a little tipsy was that we had a 5.30am appointment with the Dusky Dolphins in the Pacific Ocean. Something we had pre-booked as we couldn’t get any other dates to do the swim and we wanted to fit it into our agenda before heading back to Christchurch. So up at 4.55am we were ready and willing by 5.20am at the Dolphin Encounter center located 5 minutes down the road. Checked in and grouped up we grabbed our wetsuits, flippers, hoods and snorkelling gear ready for a 20 minute video presentation of what to expect and a little bit of history on the area.

Kaikoura is on a rocky peninsula where the sea opens out to a deep canyon providing a rich  habitat for marine mammals and seabirds. The main reason for tourists to visit the area is to whale watch, and enjoy encountering albatross and dolphins amongst many other species. The town itself has lost any charm of being a quaint seaside village and has opened up to commercialisation in a big way with large pubs, a subway, supermarkets and eateries. Further down the main street towards the peninsula though it does still hold onto a more local feel and isn’t so condensed.

The Dolphin Encounter company have been operating tours in Kaikoura since 1989 and is ran by locals, they’re a friendly team, but it must be tough having to get up at 5am every day to run these tours. After our introduction we got a bus to the jetty located on the South Bay where 2 boats were ready to take us out to sea. There was quite a swell on the ocean waves and we had a bit of a bumpy journey heading out. After around 15-20 minutes we spotted our first group of dolphins but this was a small group so we continued further until there was a larger group for us to swim with. At the sound of the horn we all got into the chilly waters and swam out to the dolphins, it didn’t take long for us to have a few around us and so the silly noises began. We were encouraged to communicate and interact with the dolphins to keep them interested in us. They are really sociable creatures and so the more you play the longer they stay!

After the first swim we got back on the boat and found the main pod of dolphins, from this point on we enjoyed 2 further swims, with around 10-15 minutes in the water each time. It was a truly magical experience, they really are playful mammals and it’s really good fun being in the water with them. You can’t touch them or try to interfere but you can swim in circles with them and make eye contact. Unfortunately for Dave he suffered from some sea sickness which seemed to have a knock on effect on board.

When the swimming was over we were back on the boat and enjoyed watching the dolphins from the side of the boat. Here we could see them doing flips, jumps and a few were mating. We both loved the experience, even with Dave’s sick bucket accompanying him. Fortunately for Jess (our guide) she was used to coping with other people’s sea-sickness and was fully prepared.

We were out on the water for about an hour and a half with around 30-40 minutes in the water with the dolphins. Helen has had this experience before when she was here in 2009 and although the weather was better then, it was still a wonderful experience. She loved doing the encounter again. On the boat journey out and coming back we saw a lot of Albatross on the sea chilling out, taking off and flying. Some with a wing span of over 3.5m! We do feel that we have become a little geeky on the whole bird-watching front, but you don’t see this amount of marine life and seabirds every day so it was pretty exciting for us!

So this was the start to 2012 for us, swimming in the sea with the Dusky Dolphins…not bad! This is our last activity in New Zealand, and all of the adventurous, exhilarating things that we have done have been really worth while. (The Dolphin Encounter cost us each $170 NZD and there were roughly 12 people per boat)

After hot showers and some much needed food we were back in the van for her final long journey back to Christchurch. We were tired back at the South Brighton Holiday Park so we chilled out after an energetic spell on the trampoline and finished our evening with a walk along the beach to the New Brighton Pier, it was a beautiful evening.

Happy New Year Everybody!

Video and photos taken on a Sony DSC-TX5 underwater camera & an Olympus Pen with a 17mm f/2.8 pancake lens