The rocket scientist and the red crayon - Gordie was fascinated with Trey's laser pointer!
Emma, Babs and Jocelyn
The entire group in front of our bus
This weekend we drove about an hour and a half away to Akaroa Harbour. It is yet another one of New Zealand's gems.
Akaroa Harbour is actually the crater of an extinct volcano, approximately 50 miles away from Christchurch. When we first arrived although just as scenic as other areas of New Zealand we noticed this town was different because all of the street signs were in French - names like Rue Jolie. This is because Akaroa was where the French tried to colonize New Zealand. Although thwarted by the British, many French settlers stayed - passing down the French culture to the residents who still call Akaroa home today.
We took a Black Cat Cruise from Akaroa township which took us on a tour of Akaroa Harbour and the nearby Pacific Ocean. Before the cruise, we stopped for lunch at a local boutique hotel/restaurant called l'hotel. Jocelyn had what she described as "the best burger ever"! :) It was beef on ciabatta bread with tons of veggies and pea shoots. Sounds odd, but VERY delicious. Trey decided to go with the food of the city. Akaroa is probably most famous for its salmon - Akaroa salmon is on just about every menu in the Canterbury region. We have noticed that the Akaroa salmon seems to have a sweeter flavor than the salmon we are used to. Delicious.
As we boarded the boat, Jocelyn said her main goal was to see dolphins and not get seasick. We are happy to report that she accomplished both of those goals!
The first part of the tour hugged the east side of the harbour where we saw a variety of seabirds, sea caves and even a rock formation that looked like an elephant! The sea caves were formed when gas pockets inside the volcano reached too high of a pressure, blowing through the rock and letting in the sea water. Even today on the edge of the sea cave you can still tell that the rock has been explosively removed. The tallest one of these sea caves reached well over 100 meters in height.
In the beginning of the tour, the captain warned about not always seeing dolphins on the tour. We feared that this was foreshadowing, but as luck would have it, we had quite the opposite experience. Not even half an hour into our 2 hour cruise, we had our first look at the Hector's dolphins that are native to New Zealand. They came so close to the boat as you will see in our photos/videos. The Hector's dolphins are the smallest and rarest dolphins in the universe.
As we got closer to the Pacific Ocean, we got a glimpse of New Zealand's tropical paradise where we could see a grove of palm trees nestled around a waterfall flowing into the harbour. This view almost made us forget about the cold winds that we felt blowing off of the Pacific Ocean! We then got closer to the inlet of the harbour where the seas were much rougher. The boat started to rock to the point where it was difficult to stand (you will also feel this in the video!! Should make you feel like you were really there with us! LOL)
After briefly venturing out into the Pacific Ocean we started heading back towards Akaroa along the west side of the harbour. Here we encountered some more fur seals - just like the ones we saw in Kaikoura. They were soooo cute! We both thought it was funny watching the seals play along the rocks with the ever-present New Zealand sheep grazing on the hills directly above. We even have one shot where you can see a scene of this! There truly are more sheep than people.
After watching the seals for a while we were visited by another pair of Hector's dolphins. Unlike the dolphins we are used to which travel in large groups, Hector's dolphins tend to stick to pairs - sometimes a threesome. Luckily for us, they let their curiosity get the better of them and wanted to see us almost as much as we wanted to see them.
The last stop was the Akaroa salmon farm where we could see all of the salmon that we knew we'd be eating later on in the year! Mmmmm.
It was an amazing day and we are quickly checking many things off of our list of "to-do's." We hope to go back to Akaroa a few more times in the next 2 years.
We came home and prepared to go out for Halloween. Jocelyn was a red devil and Trey was a rocket scientist - not a far reach for either of them (we figured we'd beat you all to the punch on that one!) We went with Babs, Gordie and Emma (and a bunch of other people) on a bus trip which is apparently a New Zealand tradition of sorts. Let's just call this a "cultural experience." :)
Basically, a bunch of people who may or may not know each other pay a small amount of money to have a bus (we are talking like the school bus variety) drive you around and take you to small bars just outside of downtown. There are speakers/loud music on the bus and you can drink alcohol! By the end of the evening, there were a few random people on our bus who did not start out with us - including an old man who was handcuffed to a girl who was apparently on our bus to begin with.....interesting. People know to get back on the bus when the driver blows a bullhorn. We did not realize what a pastime this was until we got to the first bar and saw about 6 other buses! We did end up having a blast and the great thing about these bus events is that nobody is driving drunk and that even if you do not know the people on the bus, once you are out for the night if you see the rest of your "bus-mates" in the bar you all stick together, dance and drink.
This weekend we are off to Owaka, past Queenstown - a 6 hour drive - with Debi, Scott, Babs and Gordie. Scott is from there and his parents are letting us stay there. We are leaving Friday after work and coming back Monday (taking Monday off work). The following week we make our first trip outside of NZ since we have been here - Sydney here we come! Our plans so far are to see the symphony at the Opera House one afternoon where they also serve high tea (already have tickets), do the famous Sydney Bridge Climb, go to the Markets by Moonlight at the The Rocks, enjoy a gourmet meal at a hatted restaurant (In Australia the prestigious award for restaurants is "hats"). Hopefully Jocelyn will convince Trey to let her do a little shopping too :)
