Swimming with Hector!

While Craig was enjoying the west coast rivers (as you will read in the next blog), I was enjoying the east coast ocean. Lexie and I decided to road trip up to Akaroa, a small ocean town on the Banks Peninsula, just east of Christchurch to go swimming with the dolphins! The ride there was pretty uneventful in our flash little rental car. We got to the town after driving up and over the hills on some crazy windy roads. Upon checking into our hostel, we realized I had accidentally booked a “double” room instead of a “twin” room, thinking a double would have 2 beds. Unfortunately, there was only one tiny double bed, crammed into one tiny room. Nice and cozy!


Akaroa

We spent the rest of the day and evening wandering around town, checking out the shops, eating ice cream, and having a drink and dinner outside in the sunshine. The next morning, we left the hostel and again wandered the town, stopping for coffee and a nice breakfast before checking in for our dolphin swim. It was a chilly morning so we were happy to be issued our very attractive 7mm wetsuits and booties. We geared up and boarded our tiny little boat with 7 other people. Our captain drove us out into the harbour, toward the ocean for about 20 minutes before spotting our first dolphins. Unfortunately, the little guys were uninterested in us so we sped off to find another group. We came upon a group of 5 dolphins and stopped the boat to watch for a bit. These ones showed a “positive sign” that they were interested so we all hopped into the freezing harbour waters. We spent 45 minutes in the water with the dolphins, whose numbers increased to about 25! They were swimming and jumping around us the whole time, really cool! We kept them entertained by clapping, banging stones together, and singing through our snorkels under the water.


Hector's Dolphin
(picture from doc website)

45 minutes is the maximum amount of time people are allowed to stay in the water with these dophins, so we climbed back on board. This was just as well since most of us could no longer feel our feet at that point! We shivered on the boat with some hot chocolate, watching the dolphins play awhile longer, and then headed back to the dock for hot showers.

This whole experience was really amazing! The dolphins we swam with were Hector's dolphins which are endangered and only found off of New Zealand. There are only about 4000 of them in existence and we were lucky enough to swim with 25 or so of them (a pretty rare number, according to our guide). These dolphins are smaller and have really pretty black and grey coloring. We weren’t allowed to touch them but being so close was good enough for me!

After that, Lex and I drove into Christchurch and spent the rest of the evening wandering into every single souvenir shop. Then we sat outside with a beer, where a bird pooped on my fleece. Craig called to say our credit card had gone on a shopping spree without us and he had to close our account. So, Lexie had to pick up the tab for the rest of the weekend! Our luck improved a couple minutes later though. We were walking down the street and ran into an American couple we had met the week before on the Milford Track! We had hung out with them in all of the huts and then went our separate ways when the tramp was over. They were only in the city for a few hours so it was really random to see them! We ended up going for dessert and a couple of drinks with them to end our night.

Next morning was a tasty brekkie at our favourite place, Drexel’s, more shopping, a cycle race, dragon boat races, and a glimpse of the Santa Parade before heading back to Dunedin. Oh, and I can’t forget our stop at Cookie Time!


Dragon Boat Race

A few more pics

I made it home just after Craig and we spent the rest of the night swapping stories. This past weekend was drinks at the Dean’s house, graduation, dinner at a co-worker’s, and initiation of packing, throwing away, and selling. Now, we’re finishing up our last week of work and getting ready for several farewell parties and one last trip to the west coast over Christmas. This may be our last update before heading back to the US so have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and we will see most of you soon!