It was amazingly sunny again, and Picton looked like nothing like when we had arrived with the ferry in the rain.  A van drove us down Charlotte Dr. where they dropped us off with a kayak.  It was very relaxing to paddle around the stunning Marlborough Sounds.

The sounds from Picton

We saw lots of various birds, sea stars, and lots and lots of blue mussels.  Unfortunately, it was one of those days where my camera decided not to work, and Hendrik didn’t take his kayaking for obvious reasons.  It was lovely, and afterwords we drove to Kaikoura.  It was the same drive we had done on our first day on the southern island and this time it was more gorgeous.

We saw fur seals along the way and once in Kaikoura we walked a bit on the Kaikoura Peninsula where there were pretty views.  It was our last night in New Zealand and the next day we drove to Christchurch airport.

Kaikoura Peninsula

The following day we had to say goodbye to Simon and Beata since we had planned for an extra week in New Zealand than they had. We drove them to the airport and then had to find ACE, our car rental company since we were trading our station wagon in for a smaller cheaper car. Though they claimed to be at Christchurch airport they are actually a bit away and after asking around I got directions to them. They are a pain in the ass company, but if you don’t breakdown they are the cheapest in NZ. We opted for no GPS this time since it was not only useless, but caused a lot of expensive agony and stress.

Giant Sand Fly

Then we were off through Arthur’s Pass again. The weather was clear this time from the beginning so we were able to see the gorgeous views that we had missed the first time. We spent the night in Greymouth, where we had planed on going adventure caving the following day.

In the morning we had a short drive to Christchurch and spent the rest of the day touring the city, which didn’t take very long and then spent the rest of the day souvenir shopping. Christchurch ended up being my favorite New Zealand city since it was pretty, charming, bigger than most other cities, had lots of restaurants and cafes, and it didn’t hurt that is was sunny and warm.

There was a schottish music competition and punting in the park

That evening we went to the Belgian Café since it was the Belgian holiday, Sinterklaas and to bid adieu to our two friends who were leaving us tomorrow. So we ate overpriced Belgian food and drank ridiculously expensive beer, which they could get at a fraction of the cost in two days.

The Belgians in front of the Belgian Café