I arrived in Kaikoura, a small coastal town north of Christchurch, early in the afternoon. It was too late to go on the Sperm whale Whale watch so i decided to take a hike around the peninsula. It was suppose to take 3.5 hours but I got lost somehow and it took me 4.5...not to mention it started raining. I was tired and pissed but after finding the main road I was able to make it back to my hostel. On the next day i had booked a whale watch to see a sperm whale. yes, all whale watches are pretty much the same but i have never seen a sperm whale before so I paid the heavy fare to do it. It wasnt worth the money..the sperm whale, only 1, just sat on top of the water for 10 mins, dove for 20 mins, then sat again. It was quite boring. But at least it was a nice day to be on the water.
The next day I left for Picton. I arrived at a very cute backpackers that not only served us breakfast in the morning but also served us homemade chocolate pudding and cake every night. Yum!! 2 of my flat mates were from the U.S...one from texas and the other from Cali. With me being from Boston, we practically covered the American country. I met a very nice girl from Belgium, Sofie, while eating pudding. we were talking about walking the queen charlotte track. This track is one of the most famous hikes in all of new zealand and it takes a 2 hour boat ride just to get to the island. The entire track is 71km long (~41 miles). we decided to do the first part which was 10.5 km (6miles). I am really glad that we took the hike together because there were not many people on the track and it would have been lonely doing it by myself. It was a beautiful day for a hike, not too warm and not too cold. AND the sun was shining. The area was gorgeous. After the hike, we sat in the common room, ate some dinner and prepared for our trip to Nelson. She also was headed to Nelson so we traveled together and got a hostel together. We are planning on doing another 6 mile hike along Abel Tasmen National Park.
