Christchurch to Kaikoura and back again ( Days 27 - 30)

We decided to head up north to Kaikoura for the Easter weekend (as travellers we kind of found Easter a mild inconvenience as everywhere was far busier and nowhere was open). The drive took about 2 and a half hours and followed roads that had been completely ruined following the Kaikoura earthquake a few months ago, so tunnels were caved in and roadworks were common. However, all in all the drive was still fairly easy. 

The weekend was pretty much made up of surfing (Thomas) and taking photos of surfing (me) at several different spots in Kaikoura. Even to a novice like me the waves looked pretty perfect, but being on rocks instead of sand looked painful to wade out into the sea.

We had planned to visit Kaikoura's famous seal colony and see a few other sights but the road further north was closed and so this wasn't an option for us anymore. The town itself was very small and uninteresting but the uniqueness of Kaikoura came from the sea being placed right next to the snow topped mountains, which was very beautiful. 

We stayed there until the afternoon of the next day and then decided to go back to Christchurch that evening as we had booked to go and visit one of Christchurch's tourist attractions: the international Antarctica centre, the following day. The journey took an extra couple of hours as, although we had travelled up without problems, the main road heading south was now closed and we had to make a rather long detour inland to avoid the usual road. However, we still made it back pretty early, and just in time for Christchurch to spring even more rain on us. 

The international Antarctica centre was a good outing (although I'm glad we got it half price - $59pp is a lot for what you get. The downsides were the loud screaming children (it was Easter Monday), and the rather outdated displays. The upsides were the hagglund ride and 4d movie - Thomas practically screamed like a girl when there was water sprayed into your face.) 

The next day was spent sorting out our van and cleaning (and having freezing cold outdoors showers) before going to the airport for our next adventure. (The thing we were perhaps most looking forward to was having hot showers and more often than once a week.)

New Zealand it's been amazing.