Apocalypse, Dolphins, and Birthdays!

Nelson photos: at the Kai festival eating fried maori bread with Kina (barf). 

Eating seafood souvlaki in Kaikoura on the way to Christchurch. 

What a whirlwind couple of days!! We saw some of Christchurch when we arrived there in the afternoon. The best I can describe it is like an apocalyptic Victoria, BC. There are lots of pretty old houses but they are in disrepair, and there are lots of empty lots full of ruble and lots of churches with toppled steeples and broken bricks. It’s very strange. They are still repairing a lot after the 2 earthquakes they had 2 years ago. It’s pretty dead. Anyway, we went to see some live music (jazz students) at Pallet Pavilion, which is a venue made of blue wooden pallets in an empty lot, with lots of plants planted all over it, and a bar and food trucks! It was fun. Then we wandered around trying to find the city centre, and we got very lost but stumbled across a bar playing live music too so we went to that.

            The next morning we got an early bus to Akaroa, which is a little French settler’s village 1.5 hours from Christchurch. It is so quaint! Lots of little old buildings and touristy shops. The population is only 500, but the sidewalks are swarming with tourists. As soon as we dropped off our bags at the hostel we found a hike that went to the top of the tallest mountain and hiked to the top. It was steep, and went through farmer’s fields and we saw sheep and cows and ducks. (We only bickered about the directions at every crossroads.) At the top we had a mountaintop photo-op and ate some free muesli bars and cookies form the hostel. It was a beautiful view of the harbor from the top. Then we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner and I had a seafood pizza, with octopus and fish and mussels and clams on it, and Laur had wild boar pasta! Then we went out to a little garden café/bar for some more live music and dancing.

            The next day was my birthday!! We booked a kayak tour in the morning, and after getting up at 5:45 and having a delicious giant breakfast, we were picked up and drove up the hill to a cute farm hostel. We rode in the back of a truck with couch cushions and a dog named Scruffy down to the beach. We paddled out to the middle of the inlet and saw DOLPHINS (Hector’s dolphins which are the smallest and rarest in the world). They came to me first (I swear I am the marine mammal whisperer) and we chased them and raced them and they went under our kayaks! Laura and I got very excited and started shrieking and (almost) crying and that made them very excited so they started jumping out of the water! They really liked us, and we were lucky because they hadn’t seen them for the last few days! There were 7 under my kayak all at once (the most we saw at one time). Then we paddle further out and saw the “elephant head” which is a rock arch that looks like an elephant’s head. And then we went in a SEA CAVE!!! It had sea tulips (I think they are an animal) on the walls, and it was soooo amazing! And then right nearby there was almost a rock cathedral! Then we paddled back to the dolphins, (saw a penguin fishing for a millisecond!!!) and played with the dolphins for a long time. Then we went back to the beach (I collected a lot of shells), and we had lunch. Then we hitched out to a beauuutuful sandy beach. We almost gave up hitching cuz no one was picking us up, but then we got a ride form a Czech guy who was travelling too, and we all decided to go to an even more beautiful beach than we had planned , and it was great! There was a cave there too! The water was cool but the sand was very hot, and there were lots of cool creatures washed up! I think I found a shark or squid egg case. Then the guy gave us a ride all the way back to our hostel! Then we went out to dinner at Le Petite Bistro, recommended by Lonely Planet. I had a local goat cheese risotto that was sooo creamy and cheesy, with peas and pine nuts and radish and organic greens. Laura had a summer tart/quiche with grilled eggplant and tomato and herbed ricotta on top. For dessert I had a dark chocolate and salted caramel (in soft chunks) torte with ice cream and berry coulis. Laur had a limoncello crème brulee! It was such a good birthday dinner! Then we had some sparkling rose out on the dock, and then went to the garden bar for some more jazzy live music and dancing. The band had sax and trumpet, which reminded me of Brasstronaut! There were lots of holidayers getting hammered. Then we went to a house party on the hill and talked about the proper kiwi pronunciation of “bro” for what seemed like hours. It was a fantastic birthday!

Elephant's Head

The caves! The water was so blue!! 

Inside the cave. So hard to photograph. 

Pallet pavilion in Christchurch. 

Rock cathedral. 

Sand castle with cool bone things. 

Climbing in the cave. 

Laughs at Okain's bay

Treasures of the deep. I think the black thing is a squid or shark egg case!! 

Big dead eel. 

Birthday appetizers. Such yummy breadddd

Summer tart. 

Birthday risotto! So much sun that day (when can I ever go swimming in the ocean on my birthday??)

Dark chocolate salted caramel torte.... 

Going out after dinner. 

Sunset from the dock. 

Redhead beer cookies. 

Buildings in Christchurch. 

On top of purple peak

Wild boar pasta

Kayaking with dolphins!! 

In the back of the truck with Scruffy on the way to the beach. 

Seafood pizza.... so happy

          We are heading back to Christchurch today and then we will fly back to Auckland early in the morning. I’m very glad we decided to stop in Akaroa, it is a beautiful little town!