Welcome to North Island, my precioussssss!

After thawing ourselves out in the hot springs we headed to a place called Kaikoura on the east coast. The reason for the visit was to hopefully get the chance to see a wild seal colony. As we arrived at a weather battered outcrop of land we weren´t sure what to expect or even if there would be any seals there. What we saw however was amazing, the seal colony was about 10 meters away from us. It was fantastic to be so close to these animals and they didn´t seem to mind humans being so close to them at all. Unfortunately there were some annoying Germans who decided that the warning signs around the seals didn´t apply to them and walked to within touching distance of them just to get some better photos. We were waiting for the seals to attack and drag them into the sea bleeding and screaming, but we were disappointed.The seal colony was the end of our time on the south island and that evening we boarded a ferry at 9pm and had a very bumpy 4 1/2 hour sail to the north island.

And once again as if in a state of deja-vu we were in a strange city (Wellington) very late at night with no where to stay. No problems though we managed to find a camp site that resembled an ASDA carpark but with showers and a toilet, very nice!! We spent a few days seeing the sights in Wellington before heading to our first real destination on the North Island, Taupo which is famous for the being the closest town to Mount Doon from the Lord of the Rings. We spent an amazing day hiking around the landscape that was used in the film and up to the base of the mountain (that is actually a volcano!). Once again I was blown away by just how breathtaking the scenery in this amazing country is and standing there you could understand why it had been chosen for the film.