At 7:30am we did the island crossing and on the Cook Strait the sea was a bit rough. The wind was so strong we pulled ourselves in front of the deck but after almost 2 hours the Marlborough Sounds calmed wind and sea. We enjoyed the spectacular view and three little penguins swimming next to the ferry, greeted us.

In Picton we drove to the visitor center to book our whale watching trip in Kaikoura. Following the east coast southwards we found some fur seal colonies. By foot we followed a river and after about 10 minutes walk we found a waterfall with a little pool full with seal puppies playing around.

They were pretty curious and got so close we backed off a bit. In wintertime there can be hundreds of seal puppies in this river since it is a perfect shelter.

We found a nice campground for free and took in the beautiful scene with the white mountain caps. There seem to be more free campgrounds than on the north island. Let’s enjoy the first night on the south island and dream from whales.

Following a bizarre landscape we drove the Forgotten World Hwy towards the west coast. The Egmont National Park was our goal. We found a small campground off the beaten track and we really got the feeling being in the forgotten world.

Unfortunately we couldn’t do any tracks at the Mount Taranaki (2518m) in the Egmont National Park because it was raining cats and dogs. But the way up to the visitor center was already fantastic. Too bad, we have to come back at another time.

So we continued south towards Wellington. Since it was raining heavily we decided to set off to the south island a bit earlier. We had heard so many cool stories about the stunning nature that we just wanted to see it.

In Wellington we booked the ferry tickets for the 17^th July and then we went off into the city. Free museums were just welcoming after all this rain. The Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum was just great and we spent hours in the different exhibitions.

A guided tour at the Parliament Buildings showed us the one chamber system in New Zealand. The government gets elected every three years. It was a really interesting tour.

At the Museum of Wellington City and Sea we saw the ferry catastrophe of 1968. Due to big waves and strong wind the ferry got smacked against rocks and sunk. The wind was so strong that even hundreds of albatrosses got smacked against the rocks and died.

We really got the feeling for the nature since our sleeping place was at the Marine Drive just at the beach. In the night the wind was so strong that our campervan rocked like a baby crib and the wind was whistling like crazy. The next morning when we drove to the ferry we had beautiful weather. Let’s see the south island.