Birthday girl by Emma

When we left Arthur's Pass, we drove to a seaside town called Kaikoura. This was the view from our balcony:

On the way there, we stopped at a village called Sheffield!!!

We went to an award winning pie shop called 'The Sheffield Pie Shop' ; however I don't like pies, so I didn't have one!

Eventually we found a cafe that I liked, in a town called Oxford. Next door to the cafe was a shop called Emma's.

We arrived in Kaikoura in the afternoon, and did our usual walk to see what was what. The following morning, my Dad and I looked at which restaurant I wanted to go to for my birthday, by looking round them, and checking their menus. Little did I know that at the same time, my Mum and Megan were out buying presents for my birthday. In the afternon it started to rain, so we stayed in for a while then decided to get some umbrellas, and go and see the seals at the seal colony in Kaikoura. When we got there, there were some seals on the rocks, but it was too wet to hang around. We were booked to go to swimming with dolphins the following morning (which was my birthday), but unfortunately the waves were too rough for anyone to swim safely. We postponed until the next morning, which was fine by me, as it would still my birthday in the UK then! On the morning of my birthday, after opening my presents, Megan and I went to a park next door to our apartments, with really big equipment. After that we went to see the seals again. There were a few on the rocks and some on the beach.

We went for a walk along the cliffs,

then down onto another beach. I spotted a large seal, and walked towards it, keeping a distance of at least 10 metres like the signs said. It got aggressive and barked and showed its teeth to me.

It did the same to my Dad, then went into the ocean and rolled about. Further round the beach we saw lots more seals. They weren't aggresive; they were just sunbathing-being lazybones!

In the afternoon, we went to see the Hobbit at the cinema next door to our apartments.

After it had finished, we went for dinner to 'The Whaler', which was the restaurant I had chosen.

Then we went back to the apartment to go to bed early, as we were having to get up early the next day to swim with dolphins. I had the best birthday ever!