Hitchcock was right!

What can I say.. Not much was going on in New Zealand on New Year's Eve. At least not in the corner where we were. Let me put it this way: The highlight of the "hectic activity" at the campsite was a neighbor who hurriedly went to the toilet around 11:30pm before probably going to sleep.

I knew that the start of the new year in NZ was not celebrated much, but I didn't expect it to be so uneventful.

Anyway, we had a wet and wild time and the next day we found a monstrous, two-headed hangover in our motorhome.. The stupid creature also didn't want to leave for a good 2 days.

But enough complaining.. After we licked our wounds thoroughly, we set off. On the one hand, to change the campsite and on the other hand, to visit a seal colony nearby. It's crazy how the furry colleagues lie around and sunbathe on the rocks. Apparently, the animals are more or less used to the prevailing tourism. It was easily possible to approach them within 5-10 meters. It almost seemed like the animals were posing for the cameras.

Exactly on this beach, we not only had the pleasure of getting to know the resident seals, but also the infamous and resident, almost psychopathic bird of prey in New Zealand! The seagull!

We were innocently standing with our camper on the coast. It was early in the day. Therefore, we decided to quickly grab something to eat. So far so harmless.. It was just not clear to us until then that a Nutella sandwich is like a running rabbit for the New Zealand seagull.. We were surrounded by about 50 dumb staring seagulls that were trying to pick the sandwiches out of our hands.. At least Hitchcock had a telephone booth to hide in.. I would have used it!

But let's continue with the holiday text..

After our walk at the seal colony, we settled on a campground about 10 km away. We had booked this one in advance and planned our trips from there.

On January 2, 2018, we went to Kaikoura beach early in the morning. There, we signed up for a whale-watching tour. Once we arrived, we checked in super quickly. After the guys on site reminded us about 634 times that there could be seasickness due to rough seas, I was already feeling sick before I even got on the shuttle bus to the harbor. However, we had already stocked up on the appropriate medication beforehand and survived the whole thing "healed". The tour itself was, as expected, quite touristy. Nevertheless, we managed to see two whales and various dolphins! A great experience!

When we arrived back at the harbor, we were really exhausted.. Probably a combination of getting up early and the sea sickness tablets.

Once we got back to the campsite, we treated ourselves to a good amount of sleep.

Contrary to our plans, today we drove a bit along the east coast of the South Island to Oamaru. A charming little town right by the sea with a penguin colony. So our next goal will probably be to get some penguins in front of the camera. We will keep you posted!