Whale watching, TransAlpine Train and Greymouth...

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday was knackered, am still knackered so may elaborate further in next e-mail, as may not do it justice today!!!
Yesterday we got up early... Arg and got the 7am bus to Kaikoura! Kaikoura is a very small town but is really beautiful. It has a really nice beach which is all rocks!
We arrived at 9.45am and had a coffee and a stroll down the beach, rob had a paddle 2!
At 11.45 we got our whale watching tickets and had our sandwiches before we got on the bus to take us to the boat! Its only a quick 10min bus ride to the marina! We got on the boat and had to sit while we were getting out to the area where we were going to go and find a whale! The boat was soooo cool, I love boats! We had a lesson about the area. Basically the whales get so close to the shore (about 4-5miles the day we were there) because about half a mile off shore there is a HUGE underwater canyon! This is about 1000meters deep and can fit about 6 Auckland sky towers in it!
When we arrived at the sight we could then go out on the deck! They spotted a whale on the surface, you can see them because of the water jut thing when they breath, this can be seen about 3miles away! We drove up to one and IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME! It was soooooo huge! It was up for about 5 minutes then it dived! I love watching them dive they're soooo big! It so awesome!
When that one dived we raced to see another one, this then stayed up for about 10mins then it dived! Then after that one dived we headed back towards shore and to see dolphins! We saw about 200 dolphins altogether! It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! They were all jumping and some were properly showing off by splashing around. They were just all around the boat it was awesome!
After that we went and looked at albertrosses! They were so big, they just floated around up in the water! Was soooooo cool!!! After that one of the whales that had dived earlier had resurfaced so we went to see that one again! I managed to film the end of it diving back into the water!!!
After that we went to see some seals just hanging around on rocks! Was such a good trip! They had such cool computer graphics on the ship when we were heading back they showed the canyon draining of water so you could see what it was like underneath!
Was really really cool, such a good thing to do! I was sooooooo excited to see the whales, they were sooooo ridiculously big and you only see a bit of them! AWESOME!
After that we headed back to the hostel and sorted out our accommodation for the next few places we're going! Then had dinner and went to bed!
We got up really early this morning and got a taxi to the train station to board the TransAlpine Train to Greymouth. This train goes through the mountains to Arther's Pass then further through eventually arriving in Greymouth. It was really comfortable and was really cool to go through the mountains. It was a bit underwhelming but I think thats cause we've just left Milford Sound! Which you can't beat! lol! We played the dinner party game on the train, 5 ppl that you would invite to a dinner party who can be alive or not.... I managed to think of 4. Currently they would be Barack Obama, Robin Cook, David Tennant and now I can't remember the fourth... hmmmm! I'll have to remember and get back to you on that one! lol!
Greymouth is Grey and rainy currently! We headed to the hostel which is really nice! Really friendly, met some nice people! We headed out to the post office to sent some stuff home then found out it was closed so went to the pub! The women was like you have to try all the beers before you choose which one to drink cause Monteith brewery is here! So we did, then she was like you should go on the tour, so we did!
At 4pm we headed off to go on the brewery tour, which was well good really interesting, got to try lots of beers and I pulled a pint! lol! Some guys from the parent company DB from Auckland were there so they were talking, it was really interesting!
We then headed back had dinner and have watched a film.
Now I'm gonna head off to bed, cause I'm really knackered! Tomorrow we're going to Franz Josef!
I hope everyone is really good!!!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx