Our last full day in Christchurch we didn't have anything we had to do, and nothing planned, so we decided to take a day trip out to the town of Akaroa, 1.25 hours southeast. We didn't know much about Akaroa, except that it is French-themed and that you can see dolphins, seals, and penguins there. Any chance of seeing penguins is good enough for me, so off we went. On the way we got our first glimpses of one of the things New Zealand is famous for - sheep. Lots and lots of sheep. Since it is just about the start of spring here, there were lots of cute little lambs jumping around and playing or sticking to their mother's side. "Cute as can be" as Steph would say. We had to pull over a few times to try to get pictures and videos of the tiny little sheep on wobbly legs. any farmers that saw us must find it really odd that tourist are so fascinated by the sheep.
The town of Akaroa is situated on a harbor inside a big peninsula (the Bank's peninsula, to be exact). As you drive there, you climb up a hill and all of a sudden the entire harbor and town is sprawled out before you. It was really cool and notably different than anything we'd seen before. We took the "scenic route" into town and got plenty of great views of the sparkling blue waters and large rolling hills surrounding them. The french theme to the town was immediately evident as soon as we rolled in by the 'le Mini Golf" sign on the side of the road. Besides that, a lot of the street and business names were french, but not much else really came across as very french. Still, the town was really nice with little shops and cafes along the waterfront. The big draw here is the wildlife - you can swim with the smallest and rarest dolphin in the world, the hector dolphin. They also have harbour seals and a colony of little blue penguins. The cool and very windy weather put any swimming out of the question, and the penguin cruises all left too late in the day for us, so we just walked around and checked out some of the shops before heading back to Christchurch. We promised ourselves to make a trip back when it was warmer, so swimming with the dolphins and seeing penguins will have to wait for now.
Yesterday we checked out of our hostel in Christchurch and set off towards the mountains. You can see the snow capped peaks from certain spots in Christchurch, so we were really happy to get a closer look. The drive was through mostly farmlands (a lot more sheep) and the occasional view points of the mountains were beautiful. The only issue we had was the extreme wind. I don't think I've ever experienced wind quite like this. It was blowing our little station wagon all over the place - I can't imagine what the people in campervans and buses were dealing with. At one point (just past the town of Windwhistle) it lifted a cloud of rocks and dust over the road, and we now have about 4 or 5 little nicks in our windshield. Still, we made it into Lake Tekapo safely and were blown away by the turquoise color of the lake. It is one of those glacial-fed lakes where the glacier grinds up the surrounding rock into a powder, which becomes suspended in the lake and creates the turquoise color. Similar to the lakes up in Canada that you often see pics of. The other thing Lake Tekapo is known for is the night sky - it supposedly has the clearest night sky in the southern hemisphere. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see this since it started raining as soon as it got dark. One more excuse to come back I guess.
This morning we are going to take a little hike up to a nearby peak with good views of the lake. We have another 4 or 5 hours of driving ahead of us, as we have a hostel booked in the town of Wanaka for tonight. Wanaka is only an hour or two from Queenstown, so we are getting close! We are on the hostel's computer for now, so we don't have time to upload photos (no such thing as "free Internet" in New Zealand). Maybe we'll suck it up and buy a big chunk tonight at our hostel.
Farewell!
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