I had a day off yesterday, so decided to walk up to the seal colony on the penisula. It was really warm, so a good day for a walk! I stupidly wore the wrong boots (which are no doubt going to be ruined by the end of this trip), but at least they had enough grip to climb about the rocks looking for starfish (didn’t find one – sad face). I did however chase a butterfly down the beach trying to get a photograph of it, and in doing so put my foot right in a rock pool. So had a bit of a wet foot for the rest of the walk! But I got my photos so was happy : )

Flutterby.

I then carried on walking to the seal colony, taking about a million photos along the way. Parts of the beach were really rocky, and the tide was out, so I got to peer into rock pools looking for exciting beasties (my favourite thing to do at the beach). Unfortunately the best thing I saw was a dead fish… *sigh* (not pictured – lol).

Rock pool.

Finally got to the seals, it was really cool as you could pretty much walk right up to them. Although you are supposed to stay 10m away (I MAY have gone slightly closer…). What really made me angry was when I saw a Japanese man throwing rocks at one of the seals to make it look at him so he could take a picture. I really wish I’d said something to him, or punched him in the face, either way.

Fur seal.

On the way back I decided to take what looked like a very short shortcut up a hill, to avoid walking round a bit of headland to get back to town. Turned out to be a very steep hill, followed by a climb over a fence and another steep hill. It was worth it eventually though for the view I got of Kaikoura. We might not have many sunny days left so I’m glad I went up there when I did! After limping back down into town (definitely wore the wrong shoes to clamber over rocks and up hills – I know this now), I went back to the house and found myself to be locked out. So I sat in the sun and read for two hours until Leila and Danny got back from The Hill.

White faced heron.

Today was cold. Really cold. Apparently its only going to get colder – hooray! We saw loads of dolphins playing in the water in South Bay, as well as the usual many sightings of Tiaki the sperm whale. We got home to find that someone had miraculously cleaned our kitchen, which was pretty amazing! (It was in a bit of a state before…) We decided to carry on the cleaning spree, so Leila tackled the bathroom, I scrubbed the kitchen floor and tidied the lounge, and Danny took on the washing up. Its much cleaner now, which makes me happy! Hopefully we can keep it that way : )

Tomorrow is my first day on one of the whale watch boats, hope the weather is ok! I’m sure I’ll take a million pictures and then blog about it. Right now though I need a shower, and then maybe an hour or two of playing Pokemon (yes I am THAT sad – or that cool, whichever way you see it!)

Goodnight!

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