Rainy West Coast

The weather after the glaciers was absolutely horrible man!! The west coast really is region with the highest rainfall. I was originally planning to head up to Arthur's pass and do the Avalanche Peak day walk, which was reputed to be really really good. But, due to shitty weather, I could not do it! Damn sian cos that was the trek which I was really very interested in doing. And due to the high altitude, I cannot do it in the winter too.

So after driving all the way there, I found out that the weather forecast is going to be bad for the rest of the week. I realised that when it rains in NZ, it just goes on and on for a week or so, and then it will be sunny again. There don't seem to be such a thing as one day rain. Oh well. I ended up driving all the way to Christchurch, and had to spend the day there as I was very tired out from driving already.

What I forgot was that Christchurch is one of the major gateways to NZ, and bookings for hostels are essential!! After trying out tons of hostels without availability for dorm beds, we had no choice but to pay twice the amount and stay in a twin room. Super sianz....but no choice.

The next day, drove out of Christchurch first thing in the morning, and headed to Picton for the ferry ride over to Wellington. Along the way, I stopped by Kaikoura for lunch. Kaikoura is the Maori name for crayfish, which is a delicacy here in NZ. I initially wanted to try, until I realised 1 crayfish costs about $50+!! OMG that's damn ex. But it's not the size of what we have in Singapore, but is at least 3 times larger. Looks more like a lobster to me.

Anyway, Kaikoura is also really famous for whale watching and swimming with dolphins. I initially wanted to go swim with the dolphins there, but since I already did it for free down at the Catlins, I decided to save money and give it a miss. So on to Picton and took a ferry down to Wellington.

A bit lazy now, so will post pictures of the trip to Wellington the next time ba.