We arrived in Christchurch from Brisbane literally in the middle of the night (we got to our hotel at 2 am). After sleeping in, we set out to see the city, which has drastically changed by the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, and apparently looks nothing like what it did previously. Nonetheless, it is a lovely little city with a small river running through it, a nice little central market where we tasted wine, and an impressive food scene for a small place.
It has a marvelous art museum where we took a free tour, which gave us an introduction to the collection, and some information about the current exhibits, including a really powerful exhibit about the impact of colonial history on the Maori people who came to Aotearoa (their name for New Zealand) in the 14th century. As with other native people around the world, the Maori suffered greatly from colonization, but it does seem as if New Zealand is doing more than any other country to try to address some of those past wrongs.
We also saw several of the museum's signature pieces, three of which definitely deserved photos (the first photo is a twofer):
The following day, we rented a car and drove out to the Banks Penninsula, which was absolutely gorgeous. In the little town of Akaroa, we took a boat tour to see Hector's dolphins, which are the world's smallest dolphin species. The Hector's dolphins tend to be very shy, so joining us on the voyage was Albie, the dolphin spotting dog. Of course, we were thrilled.
The scenery was beautiful, and Albie did her job well, helping us to find about a dozen of the shy creatures, which, once found, swam very near the boat giving everyone a nice view. Dogs can hear the dolphins, making them natural "spotters".
The following day (only our third in New Zealand), we drove out to Kaikoura, about three hours from Christchurch. Although we did not get a very good picture, this small town is surrounded by beatiful hills that are green at the bottom, but are high enough to still have snow at the top. Just fantastic. Also, only a short drive from our hotel we were able to walk out near the water and see hundreds of the local colony of New Zealand fur seals. We were able to get up close to these creatures.
But, as cool as the seals were, the real star of our stay in Kaikoura were the Dusky dolphins. Although we decided against actually swimming with the dolphins given the cold weather, the view of the literally hundreds of dolphins we saw from the boat was spectacular.
The best part is that the Dusky dolphins
love to do tricks such as jumping out of the water and flips. Experts are not sure exactuly why they engage in these behaviors, although they expect it has to do with mating (of course). For us, it provided great entertainment and great photos (these are just a few of the best shots). It really seemed as if the dolphins were performing for us.
Shana got this guy heading down after an impressive full flip:
One of our favorite parts was watching the young dolphins try to do the jumps and flips. As you can imagine, they were not yet able to gain much air, so no pictures were possible, but we were amused by the attempts.
Finally, as we were leaving the area where we found the dolphin pod, this dolphin was keeping up with the boat and kept jumping out of the water and then lashing his tail as he re-entered splashing those of us on the front of the boat. He did this at least three to four times in a row, and I, for one, am convinced that it was intentional, although I cannot guess exactly what message was being sent.
Finally, on our last morning in Kaikoura, we walked along the cliff above where the seal colony lives, and observed the beautiful views from there.
After a great stay in Kaikoura, and some special wine tasting on the drive back, we returned to Christchurch to fly south to Queenstown. Upon arriving at the airport in Christchurch, we did not see any security set up. We assumed the security would be at the gate. But, it turns out, there was NO SECURITY. For us Americans, this seemed totally crazy, but apparently flights that are within one island of New Zealand do not have security!
More to come soon,
Jeff and Shana
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