South Island Trip - 25.4.2018

After the second night in Motueka, we unfortunately had to say goodbye. We were supposed to spend the last night in Kaikoura. We arrived in Kaikoura around 12 o'clock and had a short time to get our lunch. However, it was not easy because most of the shops were closed due to the ANZAC holiday. ANZAC Day is a day to remember all Australian and New Zealand armed forces who have died or been injured in all wars and operations. By the way, Kaikoura is a small former run-down town that has developed into a nice village after the economy was boosted by whale-watching and dolphin-swimming attractions, and since then many tourists come here every day. After lunch, the people who had signed up for dolphin swimming were dropped off. For the rest of us, we went to the 'Seal Colony'. This is a large rocky beach where supposedly many seals can be observed. As soon as we arrived, a seal greeted us, practically resting in the parking lot. At this sight, I wondered how they actually manage to climb all the steep rocks so far inland? Anyway, after taking some great photos of the seal, Simon and I set off to find more seals. However, this was really difficult and as far as I know, Simon and I were the only ones who found another (living) seal after a long search. When you find a seal all alone in the middle of nowhere, you have to take advantage of it, right? Exactly, that's what we thought and got pretty close to the seal to take photos with it. Only afterwards did we find out that seals can actually be quite dangerous and we were really lucky that it didn't attack us. After that, we dropped off the whale watchers and I went with the others to our rooms for the night. We decided to go as a small group to search for the beach and take a short walk through the town. After that, Alex and I went to the hot tub again, which we used for about 1 1/2 hours. Since Alex had his 17th birthday the next day, we thought of something special to celebrate it. We decided to have a bonfire on the beach and before dinner, some of us went to look for firewood and a suitable spot. After dinner, the time had come and at around 12 o'clock, we sneaked out again to go to the beach. There we celebrated Alex's birthday in a small circle. You could see the Milky Way with the naked eye and even shooting stars! At some point late in the night, we went back to the hotel. This was undoubtedly one of the best evenings and a perfect end to the tour!