We decided to combine Waitangi Day, the weekend, Fa’s birthday, and moving Corinna and Rachel to Christchurch together last week. Rachel arrived from Georgia on Wednesday, Corinna drove a rental car down from Christchurch on Thursday night, and we were all here in the apartment. We packed the car Thursday night with Corinna’s and Rachel’s things, just getting it all in. Friday morning we got the last of our things and hit the road at 7:30 AM. Rachel and Corinna followed in their rental. It was going to be a scorcher so it was a good thing we got going early. We stopped in Timaru to use the loo and have a snack. By 11 we turned off highway 1 and went through Lincoln for the first time (not much to see). We had some lunch at a dairy in Taitapu and then drove the last hour through the winding road of Banks Peninsula, arriving at Akaroa at 12:30.
We found our rental house on Rue Jolie, part of the Dolphin Backpackers. It was a nice little place in the heart of Akaroa, a former French settlement, now a tourist town. We unpacked our stuff and headed out to explore the town. At the wharf, we found a fisherman selling fish he just caught an hour earlier. I bought about 8 fillets of Akaroa (Red) cod and took them back to the house. We then explored the rest of the town. We even found some fresh fudge at one of the gift shops – ummmm. Back at the house Fa and the kids played Monopoly (New Zealand Here and Now Edition) while I read (and took a nap). Soon Corinna and Rachel arrived so Fa went with them to the market to get something to go with the fish. When they got back I cooked up the fish while Fa made some potatoes and we had a great meal on the deck as the sun set.
Saturday morning we were up early, had some breakfast, and went down to the wharf for our dolphin swim. We checked in and got our wetsuits. Corrina, Ginny, Hank and I were doing the swimming while Fa watched from the boat. We carefully put on our wetsuits, beginning to heat up as the day did. Finally at 9:00 we were ready to go, and got on the “Black Knight”, a twin-outboard powered boat which soon zipped up the harbour. We saw a few Hector’s dolphins and eventually picked a spot to stop. The Hector’s dolphin is the smallest dolphin, about 1.4 metres long. We stepped into the water and spread into a circle, waiting for the dolphins to come check us out. We were told to make noise so we sang into our snorkels and someone tapped stones together. We were floating very high in the water, but still it was a bit hard to see very far. We were spread out about 3 metres apart, paddling around. A few dolphins swam right through our group of 10 swimmers, but then they disappeared. The skipper called us in and we motored for a few minutes to find some more. Before we stopped we saw a mother with a calf. It was about 50 cm long, about the size of the plush toy dolphin they had on board, very cute. We couldn’t swim with a calf – too stressful for it, so we continued and found some more dolphins. Again we got in the water and waited. A few dolphins swam around us but soon left again. The skipper was communicating with another boat who had many more dolphins and so decided to take us where they were. We waited for the other group to leave and the entered the water. This time the dolphins were very interested in us, swimming around and between us, sometimes very close. The water is somewhat murky so underwater you cannot see very far, but one finally came right up to me and I dunked my head under and saw it very close. It was a great experience. We stayed with this group until the skipper called us in – it was time to go.
The water temperature is not too cold, but being in so long, even with a wetsuit, we were all shivering on the ride back to the dock. They passed out some hot chocolate but it wasn’t until we were back at the hot showers that we warmed up. We were soon in our clothes, dried and warm. Back to the house we were all pretty much exhausted after the 3 hour experience. We pretty much hung out and rested the rest of the afternoon.
Later we cleaned up and headed to Ma Maison restaurant on the waterfront for dinner. It was a great dinner, with all agreeing the food was fantastic. I find venison hit and miss in restaurants, but I especially liked my “cervena”, the best venison I have ever had. Melt-in-your-mouth tender. Wow! Eventually were finished and headed back to the house. Later we went back out to a nice little waterfront bar and had a few drinks, then were back to the house and bed.
Sunday we had to be out by 10 so at around 9 we walked the few steps to the Akaroa Bakery for breakfast, which reminded me of an American style, with huge portions and streaky bacon. After eating we were on the road to Christchurch. Fa and Hank were a bit car sick on the windy road in to Akaroa so Ginny and I volunteered to sit in the back seats on the way out. Fa drove us over the couple of passes and into Lyttleton. I took over and drove the last bit to Sumner, Corinna’s and Rachel’s new suburb of Christchurch. After a couple of wrong turns we found their new flat on the hill overlooking the beach and city. The view was breathtaking. We unloaded their things in 15 minutes, visited for a while, and then started the long trip back to Dunedin. The day heated up as we made our way through the Canterbury plains, reaching 35 degrees on the car thermometer. By the time we reached Oamaru, it had gotten overcast and a bit cooler, but the strange thing was the reddish purple colour of the sky. We later learned it was caused by the fires in Australia sending smoke our way. We were home and unpacked by 6:00 PM, after a great holiday-birthday-moving weekend.
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