Leaving Christchurch
So we have left the lovely city of Christchurch behind us as we set off driving ourselves south. We were heading for Mt Cook, but we were to enjoy a 4 hour drive through amazing and different scenery along the way.
Whale Watching
Our second day trip from Christchurch was to drive up the coast to the little whaling town on Kaikora. Instead of killing whales, ecotourism has taken over and now there are boats to spot the whales that pass through this part of the world.
The most common whale to be seen is the Sperm Whale, but there are also other species that come through occasionally, including the massive Blue Whale.
Needless to say my lovely wife and I was pretty excited. And there was no disappointment. We got taken out a few miles into the fairly rough seas of the shore. There the crew listened on the hydrophones, searching for the sperm whales as the fed in the depths off the continental shelf. After about 20 minutes of searching we came across a sperm whale breathing on the surface. It was magnificent. What an amazing creature. So large, and so graceful. What a privilege it was to be so close.
Dolphins
So today was very special for me, and also a little bit sad. We traveled to Akoroa, which is a little town across two volcano lava flows from Christchurch. As the crow flies, it is not very far, but the journey was to take us 1.5 hours as we climbed up and down valleys on our way through the lush lava ridges and valleys.
As we wound our ways through the ridges we got to see some amazing views of the countryside, from the flat Canterbury Plains surrounding Christchurch, to the amazing inlets surrounding Akoroa.
As we reached Akoroa, we were both extremely excited. Today we would swim with dolphins. This was something my mum had always wanted to do, so I was sad thinking of her. I also knew she would be smiling at me as I did it, so as I suited up I started to feel happier.
New Zealand is beautiful
I think I can predict, that those three words will be a safe summary of the next weeks blog entries.
New Zealand’s history is fairly short when it comes to human involvement. Even the indigenous Maori have only been here for about 900 years. Before that it really was a land devoid of man – and large mammals in general to be honest of you. New Zealand is bird country.
