Wow. We loved it here; snow-capped mountains made a perfect backdrop to bright blue seas and gorgeous sunshine. Add to that a warm backpackers lodge and some real whale sightings and that sums up Kaikoura for us!

A bit of a lie in today as we’d had two super early mornings on the trot, but by 10am we were down on the beach ready for our boat trip.

Kaikoura is famous for its abundant sea life, but especially the Sperm Whales as they can be found here all year round. This is partly because of the deep canyon just off the coast.

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The Kaikoura canyon is a submarine canyon and a bio-diversity hotspot due to the upwelling currents from the deep ocean providing feeding grounds for many seabirds and marine mammals.

We can’t quite describe how extraordinary these massive creatures were – it felt surreal watching them from so close, and with everyone on board the boat silently admiring them with us, it was so special.

No better way to regather ourselves after such an adventure than to spend time by the ocean. The parents got to sit quietly and take it all in, while the children kept themselves busy playing games.

And after all that we decided it was high time for lunch/supper at 3pm in the afternoon… and it couldn’t have been anything else other than fresh crayfish, calamari and cod!

We rounded off the day with an ice cream and a walk along the beach as the sun was setting behind the mountains.

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