Christchurch to Kaikoura

ime to get in our SUV again *I still think that it is really awesome that we "backpackers" driving in such a car, and drive to KAIKOURA. We would take a detour to HANMER SPRINGS and we would stop a few times in between to take a few pictures. Our first stop was after 40 minutes. It was under a bridge and it had little puddles of water and a lot off little rocks. Offcourse we didn't just took pictures off ourselfes but also with our car.

Hanmer Springs is a place with a big spa resort but we went there to do THE CONICAL WALK. Stretching our legs for a bit. I brought a bottle of water with me and off we went. It was a nice walk and the view was pretty good aswell. Everywhere there where jellow flowers, mountains, rocks and you had a lovely sight on the village. On the top there was an little arbour and in one corner there was a letter S in it. So offcourse Simone wanted a picture with that one. It took us a while before we figured out that that stood forthe wind direction. When we walked back again we decided to go off the walking track and go straight downwarts. Thats way more exciting and we like to explore. It was pretty steep and luckly there were enough threes to hold on while going down. It's ashame that you can't see on the pictures how steep it is but anyway. It took us longer to get down but we had fun.

After a life threatening first part that day I was going to drive the next part. You quickly forget that you have to drive on the left side, well Imone does. So after a short camera stop Simone drove on the right side on the road and there was another car coming. So I yelled LEFT LEFT LEFT! AND TAKE THE HANDBRAKE OFF!! That was pretty close. . You're allowed to drive 100 km\h there. . Cars can be quick at the spot where you are. Simone just kept me awake. Good and interesting how fast adrenaline works! 

I was overreacting back there, it's different and you have to get use to it but honestly Simone is not doing a bad job. So there have been no (really) lifethreathening situations till now.

In the last half hour we stopped twice to take some pictures and the last one was the best. There we saw the ocean, THE BIG OCEAN. Also a nice spot to taka picture off your car with. Just like in the commercials.
When we got in the hostel there was a sign witho a code fom the front door just in case you would comeback and it was locked. So I askee at what time it would be closed. The answer was, "that door is never locked". Oke. . Alrighty then. . We put our stuff in our room and went towards the city center.