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Having been unable to book on a trip our first time in Kaikoura, we headed back there from Christchurch. We stayed in Dusky Lodge again, and had an early night to prepare for our 4.50am start the next morning.

Despite the early morning, the trip was great. There were hundreds of dolphins in the water that morning. The captain would stop the boat once he saw a group of dolphins and then we would all hop out of the boat in our snorkel gear and swim towards the dolphins. They are attracted to sound so all of us had to sing through our snorkels to attract them further. Four or five swam right past my face. It was great seeing them swimming and jumping in the water after we had finished our snorkelling, and the sunrise that morning on the boat completed the trip.

We left Queenstown at 4.30am to make our boat for the trip to Doubtful Sound. It was well worth it. We had beautiful weather and the small boat was a good choice. We had delicious food – scones in the morning, homemade soup, sandwiches and cakes for lunch and more cake in the afternoon. Doubtful sound is an endless tunnel of fjords and like nothing I had ever seen before. As an added bonus there were lots of dolphins swimming around the area that day. At one stage a school of four were swimming by with the boat for about 10 minutes. The captain said that it was likely that the dolphins were so attracted to the boat that day because of all the female attention they were getting! (Us six, plus the our or five other women on the boat had all been enthusiastically leaning over the side of the boat to see them).

We stayed in Te Anau that night and then left early in the morning to go and see Milford Sound. Unfortunately the weather was awful that day so we didn’t get to see much of the sound. It would be unfair to make a comparison but Doubtful Sound was a much better day for us!

We travelled from Santa Marta to Cartegena by mini bus, taking about 4 hours. Three of us had arrived the night before and were staying in Media Luna hostel. However when we got there, two of us feeling sick checked into the room to discover one of the shared toilets had no lock and the other wasn´t working – not a good combination! So, the four of us quickly left and moved into a small hotel down the street – a private room with a TV was a bit of a novelty!

Cartegena is a beautiful colonial city with lovely buildings of great character. The old part of town is surrounded by a high wall and full of nice cafes and restaurants. We did find it quite touristy as everyone visits here on their trip to the Caribbean coast and it is hard to get away from being offered to buy things the whole time as you wander round. Australian Fusion on Calle Media Luna, was a good place to eat. We also went to a local fiesta there. they had set up a big stage near the old city gates, lots of music, food and drinks and a sort of fashion parade going on at the same time as the band. Good fun, besides getting sprayed with some kind of flour stuff that apparently is the done thing at these events!

One of the days we took a boat trip to Playa Blanca – having been put off staying overnight there by the reports of deadly sand flies we just did the day trip. Playa Blanca itself is lovely, white sandy beaches and gorgeous blue water. However due to a mixture of our lack of Spanish and the tour seller blatantly lying to us, we only got to stay at the beach for about 2 hours – the swim was worth it though!