On the way to our final NZ destination, we did a night's detour to the lovely harbour town of Akaroa to attempt to go swimming with dolphins.
Akaroa is the main town among the rolling farmland of the Banks Peninsula. The peninsula was formed by 2 ancient volcanic eruptions and has bays and inlets scattered all along its circular shoreline making it look a bit like a cog on the map (see aerial photo). The area has a strong French influence with street names like Rue Jolie and a town called Le Bons Bay (we wondered if Simon has ever been here!). The captain of a French whaling ship bought the whole peninsula in 1838 from a local Maori chief. However, when the French returned, bringing with them the first emigrants, they found out that the British had sovereignty over NZ and the deal they did with the Maori chief meant nothing. Gutted, beaten by the Roast Beefs again! However, the French settlers obviously couldn't face the long voyage back so chose to stay.
Anyway, it was the dolpins that brought us here. Akaroa harbour is home to the endangered Hector's dolphin which is one of the smallest types of dolphin. They are only found along parts of the coast of NZ. They are quite distinctive with white bellies, grey bodies and a black rounded fin that looks like a Mickey Mouse ear.
If you saw the TV series '100 things to do before you die' a few years ago, you may remember that swimming with dolpins was voted at number one. You may also have heard comedian Bill Bailey's thoughts on it:
'It's such a weird thing to want to do. The equivalent would be someone coming to England and saying to the farmer, "Can I get in with the cows?"
'"Well, if you want, I suppose. What d'you want to do with them?
'"I just want to, you know, scuffle about with them."'
Bill Bailey also talks about his dolphin experience and the mild terror that came over him when dumped into rough sea with a load of wild animals, and how ungainly he felt flapping about in a wet suit and flippers. This was something that Darren felt particular empathy with. So he breathed a huge sigh of relief when we were told we weren't going to need flippers, just wetsuits.
A group of 10 of us went out on the boat to search for the dolphins in the harbour. We were convinced that word would have gone round that we were coming and they would hide and snigger at us from afar, but soon the captain spotted two dolpins up ahead. Before we could get in the water, they have to make sure that a) there are no babies with the pod and b) the dolphins seem interested and are hanging around the boat. Both those things affirmed, we were given the signal to get in. Oh. My. God. The water was icy cold and the first few minutes we were in shock, trying to get the hang of swimming and balancing in super thick wetsuits, spreading out from the boat under orders from our guide and trying to catch a glimpse of these sought after mammals, in case they made a quick exit.
We'd read that singing to them can make them more interested and come closer to you, so Angie gave it a go. They seemed to respond to Kylie! Angie also had 2 stones that the guide had given her. Apparently if you tap them together rhytmically the dolpins can distinguish them above the boat's engine and this can also attract them to you. So what with singing, stone tapping and swallowing water, Angie had quite a lot to keep her occupied!
At first we had just 2 or 3 dolphins around us but over our time in the water the numbers increased and at one point there were 10 or 12 swimming between and around us. We didn't see any of them jump out of the water unforunately, but they swim in formation and surface in 3 and 4s, curving their graceful bodies out of the water. Darren had a great thing going on at one point when he started swimming along and 3 of them joined in with him. Of course, the best view of all this was had by the captain and guide on the boat. When you're actually in the water it's harder to see them and follow their movements. The guide kept shouting out 'they're behind you!' pantomime-style and by the time we turned around they'd dived down again. But we got a couple of precious close-up sightings and spent most of the time in the water with big grins on our faces.
One thing that is fascinating when you have swum with dolphins is the fact that they choose to spend their time with you, and all the other people that hang about in the water, three times a day, day after day, month after month. You'd think that they'd get bored of the never ending stream of hopeful humans. Why do they repeat the experience almost every day? Maybe, there is one entrepreneurial dolpin that charges the others to go 'swimming with people'?
After our alloted hour in the water the cold was really starting to take a hold even through the thick wetsuits. Angie's feet were so numb that she could barely climb up the ladder into the boat and was hobbling around unsteadily for the next 15 minutes. Some hot chocolate helped though and we had a fantastic time watching loads of dolpins catch a lift in our bow wave on the way back. As they picked up speed in front of the boat they turned on their sides and gave us little cheeky grins. It was magical, and just as good as the actual swimming bit.
On arrival in Christchurch we had to drop our car off at the rental place and Angie was certain that after getting round the country relatively safely, she would crash it in the last 5 minutes. We both breathed a huge sigh of relief as we turned into the car lot. The woman there commented on how dusty the car was and asked where exactly had we been driving to get it that dirty? She was also surprised at our milage - we'd done a grand total of 3700km in 25 days.
Our hostel in Christchurch had lovely communal areas, including a huge TV and loads of DVDs, but our bedroom was next to laundry room, in a lean-to shed, with a ceiling height that suited Angie but probably not many other adults.
On our first full day we wondered around the town centre in the rain, did some shopping and popped into the Catherdral, stumbling upon a free concert. It was barbershop-style carols and made us feel suitably Christmassy, which was nice. New Zealand seems to be much more civilised than the UK, since they really don't turn up the heat on the Christmas theme until December is underway. Suddenly in the last few days we've started to see Christmas lights etc. This is definitely how it should be, rather than the English mania of putting up decorations in mid October.
The Christchurch art gallery is an impressive big modern building that we didn't have nearly enough time to explore, but we did spend ages lapping up a fantastic South Korean modern sculpture exhibition that was kitsch, quirky, risque, beautiful and political all at once. One of Angie's favourite pieces was an opened tin of sweetcorn with a miniature green giant peering out. Darren liked the huge snake made out of computer keys surrounded by mice and the hotel room made out of noodles.
We were all dressed up and just about to leave our hostel for a Saturday night out dancing when we thought we'd quickly check the times for our flight to Fiji on Monday. Angie got out the tickets and took a big gulp. We had missed our flight by 12 hours! This was caused by relying on memory for flight dates, rather than the facts printed on the tickets. Ever since leaving the UK Angie had been convinced that we were flying to Fiji on 5th Dec, when actually it was on the 3rd. Darren, not wanting to doubt her wisdom (more trouble than it's worth! *darren), had gone along with this. Quite how her misunderstanding came about she's not sure, but it was irrelevant now. What was important was phoning the airline. But by this time we'd already had a fair bit of cider and so we faffed around for a long time trying to find phone numbers and staring at each other in disbelief. When we got through we managed to get the last 2 seats on a flight in 12 hours time. So, the night on the town was out of the window and we trotted back to our shed to pack and get our thoughts into some kind of order.
Depending on which way you look at it, we got a night extra in New Zealand (seeing as we were meant to fly the day before) which was a definite bonus as we have loved it here and could easily have filled double the time. Or, you could say that we had a night less as we had planned to stay an extra night and as such didn't really explore Christchurch as much as we had wanted.
The next morning, after 4 hours sleep we arrived at the airport extra early in order to give us time to get our tickets reissued. It was supposed to have cost us 70 quid each, but the woman who changed our tickets didn't ask for any money. We thought maybe we'd be charged at check-in, but no. When settling our departure tax we were convinced that the computer would alert the cashier that we hadn't paid, but unless we get charged next time we fly it looks like we've got away without paying for our mistake. And it cancels out the night's accomodation in Christchurch that we paid for but didn't use.
In the airport we had ages to wait but were entertained by several large groups of young adults who were travelling back from the national special Olympic Games. We found out all about the medals they'd won. They were very excited and loud so early in the morning.
With our little hiccup behind us, we put away the NZ guidebook and opened the Fiji one.
Christchurch Hotels
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