We decided that a trip to Akaroa deserved a little extra time, so Kent found a lovely place to stay up in the hills overlooking Akaroa Bay. A couple of nights there would give us plenty of time to see Akaroa. Akaroa sits in the caldera of an extinct volcano. You have to climb up and over the edge to get down to Akaroa. More small, winding roads! But once you climb over the edge, the view of the town and the harbor are SPECTACULAR! It's breathtakingly beautiful.
Our first morning in Akaroa dawned cloudy with a bit of drizzle. So, we decided to take a late afternoon dolphin cruise – that would give the weather a chance to improve. (Or get worse, the weather is a crap shoot in Nz!) A cruise ship came in – the usual docks at Lyttleton (the port for Christchurch) were damaged in the earthquake, so cruise ships now come into Akaroa. Tourists have to be bused into Christchurch and other locations anyway, so the only "challenge" was the extra time it took to get into the city or other destinations. Actually, Akaroa was a better destination as there were more "touristy" activities in town rather than at Lyttleton. Unfortunately, the population of the town grew from about 1500 to almost 5000 – wow, was it crowded! After booking our cruise, we walked around the northern portion of town and saw some familiar landmarks (especially the War Memorial, which had been damaged in the earthquake earlier this year).
The dolphin cruise was superb! We couldn't believe it lasted 2 hours – it seemed much longer (we saw plenty of wildlife) ... and shorter (time just flew by). We had seats up in the front of the boat, so we had great views of blue penguins, Hector's dolphins (found only in New Zealand – the smallest aquatic mammal), seals, and sea birds. We saw about a dozen dolphins in three different pods. One pod had one or two mother-calf combinations, but they didn't come close enough to the boat for pictures. However, other dolphins came right up to and under the boat – they were up close and personal! The other great show was at the seal colony (just outside the mouth of the harbor on the east side). We saw bulls, females, and a few little pups. Most were sunning themselves on the rocks, but there was one fellow that swam along the shore and gave us quite a show. We saw numerous blue penguins, which were just like the ones we saw in Napier (at the National Aquarium). We came across a big cloud of red krill and one of the crewmembers on the boat scooped up some for us to see. It's hard to believe that something so small could be nourishing enough for whales.
The cruise also took us past the Maori village south of Akaroa – we took some pictures of the local whare (meeting house). Green's Point Memorial was clearly visible to show where a flag was raised in August 1840 to demonstrate to the French settlers that the South Island was already British (http://www.akaroacivictrust.co.nz/fastpage/fpengine.php/link/1/templateid/79/tempidx/2/menuid/1). And, of course, we saw plenty of interesting geology along the coastline and in the harbor. The ship's captain pointed out the southernmost stand of native New Zealand palm trees just above a coastal waterfall.
After the cruise, we took a short drive to the Akaroa lighthouse. The lighthouse had been relocated in 1980 by the local preservation society. After such a busy day, we were glad to relax in the studio and watch a colorful sunset (followed by a peaceful sunrise the next day).
