when i first started researchingt his trip over a year ago, Christchurch was an area that I wanted to stay in and work for a month or so. The coastal town had tons of attractions and nightlife so I knew I would just love it. In February of 2011, a massive earthquake hit Christchurch and demolished the entire town. A year and a half later, the town has still not been half rebuilt. When arrived at the information center, i realized that 2 days in this town would be too much..there was nothing for me to do! Since I decided to only stay a few nights, I decided to couch-surf instead of pay for a hostel. Couch surfing is an organization that caters to backpackers. Other travellers open up their couches to you for "X" number of nights for free...maybe by them a few beers or cook dinner as payment in return. I stayed in a house with an english guy, irish girl, malaysian guy, and a couple for the czech republic. luckily for me they had an extra bed and not just a couch. Once i arrived in town, i couldnt go to the house until the evening so I took a 2 hour tour of the city ( the parts that were not cordoned off) The bus took me to Sumner beach and a city look out. Compared to Dunedin, this town is flat! no hills and really no mountains. The city skyline wasnt all that impressive, in my opinion.
The next day, I took a shuttle bus to the Akaroa penninsula where I booked a dolphin encounter boat trip. It took about 2 hours to get to the town and we had about 4 hours before we headed back. This town only has approx 500 year-round residents. 75% of the houses are holiday homes and the town thrives off of tourism. It was said that during the peak season, the towns population can reach to that of 4,000! This town reminded me of somewhere you would see on a postcard or in a travel book that suggested "relaxing, quiet getaways." This quaint little town was beautiful but I have quickly noticed that everywhere in New Zealand is beautiful. Anyways, The sky was blue and the temps were warm so it was a perfect day to be out on the ocean. The small catamaran took us around the harbor and around the peninsula where we saw seals and Hectors dolphins. Hectors dolphins are very rare and are only found along the shores of NZ. There are only 7,000 of these dolphins remaining and 1,000 of them swim off the shores of Akaroa. Once we got out to the ocean a bit, we saw them everywhere! Smaller than the bottlenosed dolphin but just as friendly. They swam up right next to the boat. They were so cute! We were out on the water for a good 2 hours and when we returned to shore, I grabbed some lunch and off we went back to Christchurch. I had an amazing day in Akaroa and a wonderful experience couch surfing. The next stop on my Journey is Kaikoura, where I plan on staying in a hostel for a few nights and going on a whale watch to see sperm whales! The weather is looking good so hopefully the seas will be calm :)
