Kaikoura, 13 March - we love it here!

Superb weather today and this is such a lovely place.

Mark started the day with a bit of business....very stressful!

Kaikoura is well known for whales, dolphins, seals and birds.  We tried to see as much as possible on our one full day here and did pretty well.

Whale watching on a calm day is delightful and we learnt a lot.  All of the `semi-residential' whales have been given names, based on their physique.  We saw `flat top' - he's very flat across the tail and H2BO - I can't remember the explanation for this am afraid.  They do need to think of something a little more catchy! 

This is `flat top' doing a deep dive after 20 minutes or so at the surface. 

The afternoon got even better when we came across a school of bottlenose and dusky dolphins.  They seemed to love diving under the boat...really incredible. 

Our final nature encounter was with a brown fur seal and her pup - this was at the seal colony on the Kaikoura peninsular walk.  Mum was unimpressed at being the focus of attention and went into the sea leaving her pup to make its own way.  It got to the water eventually - hopefully there was a happy ending. 

All in all one of our most enjoyable days in New Zealand.  I also got some practice at doing a `selfie' near the whale watch waiting area!