To the South Island

We took the ferry from Wellington to Picton, a beautiful 4 hour sail from New Zealand's North to South Island. The South Island is much less populated and is famous for its Lord of the Rings landscape. We pulled in too late for any of the wine tasting tours in the Marlborough Pennisula's wine region, so we drove down to the sleepy beach town of Kaikoura. The landscape here is beautiful--the southern alps are quite close to the shoreline, and there's a nearby seal colony. Though there aren't as many seals here after it warms up in November, we were able to see a good number of them, including the one above, who we've dubbed the Paris Hilton of seals.

-K & D