Tramp to Mt.Isobel

For once we were lucky. We had fantastic weather for our weekend to Kaikoura and Hanmar Springs. At Friday we headed with our rented car up to Kaikoura, where we enjoyed the marine sealife. (see the previous post)
At Saturday we had a short drive to Hanmar, where we had to buy all our food for the tramp. The sun burned quiet hard when we started our walk, but we found some shadow in the forest. After passing a awesome waterfall we arrived in the late afternoon at the crest to Mt.Isobel, our target for this day. The wind gusts were sometimes very hard, but we could find a place which offered protection, there we set up our tent. After dinner we walked to the top to enjoy the sunset. My friends organized a disco with their walk mans, but I prefered to go to sleep. At dawn we got up. we had not a long time to wait till the sun rised over the sea. A breathtaking moment!
After a delicious breakfast with cappuccino and muesli we had to set off for our walk down to Hanmar. What a relief to sit there in the hotpools and recover from our adventure!

Sealife in Kaikoura

Kaikoura is famous for it's sea life. It was in the 80this a calm fisher village and changed nowadays to a bustling touristic place. We were strolling along the shore and were able to watch a few seals... what cute animals! They are used in having contact with people and don't seem to care about curious photographers, but take care! Seals can be very dangerous and going to approach them to carelessly can be dangerous. Keep always 10m distance!








In the afternoon was our whale watching trip schedulded. Three and a half hour were we on our vessel and it was impressive how these guys were able to detect wild life animals. It needed them half an hour to recognize the first whale by radiosonar. With high speed were we tracking the whale and we were successful!
In were able to watch two whales and a school of Delphine's. I got a little bit jealous... it was obvious that they enjoyed their life in the sea, jumping around and playing in the waves...

Canterbury Agricultural Park

Yeahh after several weeks diligent studious work offered our school a tour to the AP show... a chance to take our mind off books and exercices...

Speedy sheepshearer



Crazy tractor pull competitiors


Handsome woodchoppers




Breathtaking views!




Some guys from school...Debbie and Lio enjoy the show