NZ +25: So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish!

So, with only a few days left, we have to pack in as much as possible, so today was a journey out to Akaroa, which looks quite close to Christchurch on the map...



...but is 80km away on windy mountainous roads and takes about an hour and a half to get to.

It's a pretty little town, on the shores of a lake formed by a collapsed volcano crater (aren't they all here??)...



...colonised by the French and the British, so loads of the streets are Rue This and Rue That, and every hotel or guest house has come up with some poncy French name. Some of them have even researched how to spell the words properly.

We were here to do a Black Cat Harbour Cruise and we were promised that if we didn't see dolphins, we got our money back.

Well, the departure building (and obligatory gift shop) had dolphins painted on the roof...



...and I thought we might be in for a whole Kaikoura/Whale experience again, but we set off down the harbour, getting a good view of the town...



Apparently, the population of Akaroa is roughly 400, but swells to about 4,000 during the summer as a result of people having their holiday homes here. Only 30% of the houses in the town are occupied all year round. The area in the picture above, called The Glen by locals, has only five houses that people actually live in as their first home. It's a bit like Cornwall.

Further down the harbour we went, looking at intersting volcanic rock formations on the way...



...and Maori villages in valleys running down to the water's edge...



There was time to experiment with the different modes on the camera to make the rock formations look more interesting...



(they were actually quite interesting anyway!)

...and then, shapes in the water. Was this a dolphin??



Well actually, yes it was. It was several. About 20 altogether. They are special dolphins that you only get here, called New Zealand Dolphins, surprisingly. They're also called Hector Dolphins and they are about 1.2 - 1.4m long. A whole bunch of them swam right by the boat for about 15 minutes...



Now, what on earth you were supposed to do on dolphin-watching expeditions before digital cameras came along, I have no idea. I took about 100 photos in just over ten minutes, in the hope that some of them would show dolphins leaping gracefully out of the water. If I'd had an old 24 exposure film camera, I doubt whether I would have anything to show, wildlife-wise, for my two hours on the water. As it was, I got a few good photos and the experience was really exciting and uplifting!



(Didn't have camera handy when they went through hoops and balanced beach balls on their noses. Take my word for it...)