Back in good old Wellington

After three and a half absolutely incredible months, which I will never forget, I'm finally back in Wellington with a permanent bed and an address again.
 My final week of travelling was filled with more exciting adventures; the highlight though was definitely swimming with dolphins.
My last couple of days wwoofing for Kerry and Tim were spent weeding, cleaning, picking up cow muck and eating wonderful food.
On Wednesday Kerry dropped me off in Blenheim and I said my goodbyes before catching the bus to Kaikoura; a town half way between Picton and Christchurch which is famous for whale watching. Here I spent 3 nights at Dolphin Lodge, a nice, small backpackers.

 The next morning I walked down to 'Encounter Kaikoura' for 8.15am where the group of us going to swim were each kitted out with a wet suit, a hood, fins and a snorkel and mask.
We were extremely lucky as about 30 minutes in to the boat ride we came across a pod of orcas (killer whales); these are the largest dolphin in the world and a pod passes through Kaikoura every six - nine weeks.

 The orcas came right up to us and due to the unusually clear water we could see them as they appeared from under the boat. We spent a while watching two of the orcas circling a small shark whilst albatross' swooped over head. (This is pictured to the left - you can just make out the small shark to the right of the orca.)
After about twenty minutes we moved on to find the pod of dusky dolphins which had been spotted about 10 minutes away.

 Once in the middle of the pod we plopped off the back of the boat into the water, hoping the killer whales didn't decide to come this way. In order to attract the dolphin's attention we had to squeak. Mostly the dolphins would whiz past but sometimes they would take an interest and swim in circles, staring right into my eyes; such an amazing experience. We were able to go in four times; about 5 minutes for each swim. On the final swim we were joined by some Hector dolphins (the smallest dolphins in the world); apparently these are only seen on about 5 five percent of trips.

 Once dry, and warmed up with hot chocolate, we watched the dolphins for a bit, leaping and doing flips out of the water, before heading back to land. I would thoroughly recommend this trip to anyone heading that way.
The rest of my time in Kaikoura was spent going for walks and drinking coffee. The walk around Kaikoura peninsular was lovely and there was a large seal colony which I stumbled across, nearly stepping on one of the hidden seals as I crossed the bay!

 On Saturday I took the bus to Christchurch where I spent half a night before heading to the airport at 4.30am to catch my flight to Wellington.
I've had the most fantastic time over the past 3 and a half months and really can't believe how quickly it's all gone. Just four and a half months left now! I'll have to make sure I make the most of them and pack them full of more adventures.