Tuesday and it was time to get on that big green Kiwi bus. We'd heard such good things we couldn't wait to get started! Our first port of call was Kaikoura. The journey itself was amazing. We got our first glimpses at just how beautiful the NZ landscape was going to be! Rolling hills, green grass and plenty of wildlife - if not a lot of sheep! We arrived in Kaikoura and once again it was roasting. Whale watching was to be our first group outing. After a thrilling wildlife DVD that had us all doing our nodding dog impressions (bloody hell we know a lot about whales) it was off to sea. A rather luxourous boat vessel was at our disposal and as the female guide told us a little bit more about whales and how they track them, the lazy boy seats proved too comfortable and again we were catching up on sleep. After a bit of a journey and some tracking it was action time. Cameras out we got our first glimpse of a Sperm Whale. It chilled out on the surface for a good few minutes whilst we all tried to take pictures that didn't make it look like a rock (harder than you think). After that it was time for the money shot. As the whale went for it's final dive you had to be quicker than Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry to get a decent snap. Luckily to say a few of us did! After that it was go go go. Captain Birdseye had us flying around in all sorts of directions hunting down Whales and it was up and down from the centre hub every few seconds waiting for another snap. Spotted loads of whales and got some reasonable photos (nothing Attenborough would consider porn). It was a great experience and with Matt 'I get sea sick on a bouncy castle' Hamer looking a little worse for wear we headed back to dry land. Well worth it.

After that it was back to the kitchen for our newly reunited chefs, Matt 'Delia' Hamer and Jack ' Deep Fried' Howden to cook up another storm. Sufficiently stuffed and keen for a quiet night it it was soon down to the bottle shop for some alcohol. Thinking everyone would be out we roped in two others for some drinking games. Out to the town and it seemed every bar we went into only had 8 people in. Us. Not dettered we went to the happening place and found some newly graduated Kiwi pilots. Having had a long conversation with them we are all s***ting it about our next budget flight. However they would good lads and not shy to share their beers. At some point however the Kiwi's wanted to show us how to win a boat race. With 4 of them lined up against Jack, Chris, Matt and Andy it was on. Jack went first with the Kiwi cheating his arse off we were slightly behind. However Chris owns a rule 101 book on cheating and before you knew it Chris was done. A slightly wet T-Shirt and something of a paddling pool by his feet the Kiwi lad who had gone second was dumb struck on just how fast he could make a pint disappear! All that was left was for Matt (with some slight encouragement from Chris) and Andy to bring it home. Kiwi's done! Good night even if it was just us out! Roll on Nelson!