I didn't think it would get any colder than Bolivia until I thought it a good idea to go swimming in the Pacific Ocean one country up from Antartica.

Sperm whales are in the canyon all year round. They also get killer whales sometimes.


A tish u


Nice pad whales






Here is a very moody miserable cold person who doesn't realise she's about to have the experience of a lifetime. I was bloody terrified of the waves and very cold.


The pod is about 200 strong.


These guys were all over the beach in Kaikoura







We're not supposed to be meeting Pete until Thailand.


It was pissing down when we arrived (surprise surprise)


I think this was our warmest day. There's me thinking it was summer time over here. Sure enough we were being told that the weather was unusually cool.



The beach at Kaikoura


Tim says these are cormorants


18th December 2005, Bangkok, Thailand.
I haven’t written in here for ages, so I’ve got a bit of back tracking to do. Back to New Zealand:
It was good to see Paddy and Rhiannan. We had a great night out which involved dissolving most of our budget on alcohol and getting completely wasted. We went to see Ryann Sheenan's album launch for ‘Music for Nature Documentaries.’ They were great. So much so, we’ve bought the album. There’s some fantastic music knocking around this country. We’ve picked up a couple of albums of various people we’d never heard of before including a reggae band called Conscious Roots who are quite good.

We stayed in Paddy and Rhy's fabulous, enormous flat right in the centre of the madness that is Wellington. I can’t remember how much they are paying for it, but it’s nothing compared to London prices. The flat is gigantic. It has a huge reception area with brand new fully fitted kitchen, two huge bedrooms, each with en-suite bathrooms, a balcony and private parking. It just makes you wonder why the hell we are all shedding out so much money on poxy box flats in London with no garden and not even a parking space on the street never mind in a garage. I’m really pleased for them. They’ve got a year to work in NZ – I hope it works out for them. It will be nice to catch up with them once they are home.

We went on to the South Island after that. We didn't get to see as much as we would have liked, but the highlight had to be spotting sperm whales at Kaikoura and snorkelling (in the absolute freezing bloody cold) with literally hundreds of dusky dolphins.

The Kaikoura Canyon is one of the natural wonders of the world. About a km out into sea from the east coast of the island, the seabed suddenly drops by about 1000m leading to a massive canyon which is said to be home to the giant squid.

Spotting the whales was cool but truly unforgettable was swimming in the canyon with a huge pod of dolphins. I have never been so cold in all my life. When I first jumped into the water I decided very quickly that I was going to have to get back out again – I really didn’t think I was going to be able to bare it. It was so cold it was stopping me from breathing - and that was wearing a full wet suit too.

However the minute I saw my first dolphin I completely forgot about the cold. They are amazing. There are so many of them. At one point I had two over my head, one beneath me and one more swimming round in a circle. Tim and I worked out a double act. Apparently they like you to play with them by singing and ducking and diving – otherwise they get bored with you and swim off.

The rule is that we are there to entertain them – not vice versa. So Tim did all the ducking and diving while I swam in a circle and sang as best I could through my snorkel. Most of the time I was just laughing. Just being around them was making me laugh and I couldn’t stop. We soon realised that my laughter was attracting them even more.

I know it sounds cheesy, but it really was one of the best things I have done so far in all my life. Yes, it was organised, but this was no marine park. We were in the middle of the ocean over the 1000m deep canyon. This is home to huge whales and giant squid. It’s bloody freezing and really hard to snorkel in – the waves are pretty big and scary. The weather had been so bad leading up to that day that we’d had to wait around a few days in order to be able to go. It cut into our time on the South Island, but I’m really glad we did. Some things are just worth the wait.

We ended up spending 5 days in Kaikoura, which left us precious little time to do much else. Although I’m really glad we hired a car to travel the country, because just driving around was a treat. The countryside is so beautiful. Full marks to the Maori people. The richer ones have bought up loads of land and refuse point blank to allow ANYTHING to be built on it. Ninety Mile Beach is 87km (not sure why it ended up being called 90 miles) of really wide, wind swept beach. There is not a single cabin on it. It’s lush. New Zealand is lush. It could just do with some decent designers in the towns (and less bloody English folk). I really hope future generations never ever give in to greed and allow development. Motorways don’t really exist apart from when you are approaching Wellington and Auckland. The rest of the roads are fabulously maintained ‘A’ roads which allow you to see all the fantastic scenery that this country has to offer.