New Zealand Day 9

The views into Akaroa were amazing.

We had to wake Dax and Seth up this morning in order to get on the road to Akaroa. It's only about an hour south of Christchurch, but the road is steep and winding. We wanted to be there by 10:30 to get booked for a cruise. We only made two stops for birds, which our relatives tolerate with smiles, and we pulled up at the dock just in time. Akaroa was pretty deserted, and we easily booked our tickets for the eleven o'clock wildlife viewing tour on the boat.

This pigeon was so pretty sitting in the sun.

We loved seeing all the birds. This one is a tern.

Akaroa is a lovely place to spend the day.

Randy's brother and sister-in-law decided to grade papers in a small cafe while we took our cruise. That meant that besides the five of us, there were only six other people on the boat, which would easily have held at least 75. As we boarded, the captain asked the boys if they would come up front and help him drive the boat, and they were thrilled! Each of them got two turns to steer the huge ship, once when it was going really slowly in the harbor, and once when it was speeding back to the wharf. He even put his hat on them as they sat in the captain's chair!

We were excited for another cruise.

We are on the front of the boat ready to go.

This was our third, and favorite, cruise or the trip.

Seth was the first to drive the boat.

Dax was the first to get to wear the captain's hat.

Mark got to steer through a lot of the bay. The captain commented on how well he did, and  how Mark could read the radar and head the right direction all on his own.

We were also allowed to walk all around the boat freely because it was quite empty. We spent most of  our time on the bow trying to spot animals, and there were plenty to see. The first thing we saw were three small Little Blue Penguins. They quickly swam away from the boat, so we didn't get a good look at them, though they weren't too far from us. As we drew closer to the land, we started to see some pretty cool birds, like giant petrels and albatrosses. Then we spotted the harbor seals all along the beaches. There were dozens of them sunning on the rocks. Some of them sat up to look at us floating by, but most didn't even lift a flipper.

Mark and Dad loved standing in the front watching for animals and birds.

It was super windy up front!

One of the little blue penguins that we saw.

The fur seals were just relaxing on the rocks.

This seal is tired!

We saw an albatross.

We were excited to see this giant petrel. He was huge!

This seagull was waiting for us back at the dock.

Just as we were enjoying the seals, the dolphins surfaced. There were just a few, but they were almost right under the boat. They were tiny little things called Hector's Dolphins, and they only came up for a second at a time. We kept shouting, "There!" and "Right here!" but it was really hard to snap a photo or see one for more than a flash. Of course, the boys were in heaven. Dax even said, "This is the most fun we've ever had!" Eventually, the boat took us all the way to open water and sea swells bounced us up and down pretty hard. The captain found a larger "raft" of dolphins, as he called them. This one had about a dozen dolphins, and they were all around the boat. It was such an amazing adventure!

The dolphins swam all around the boat.

The Hector's dolphins are the smallest dolphins in the world.

There were fun little holes where water could splash along the rocks during our boat ride. 

The boat ride lasted two hours, and by the time we got back to the wharf, it was well past lunch. We found a really nice fish shop and enjoyed fish and chips and seafood chowder that was really, really delicious. It was one of our favorite meals in New Zealand. Then we rode out to a Maori building with amazing wood carvings.

The lighthouse was so picturesque.

The boys loved their day in Akaroa.

We loved our epic trip to New Zealand!

The old Maori kaik was a fun stop.

We loved the carvings on this community center. 

The roses were still blooming at the war memorial.

We stopped at the war memorial to look around.

We wanted to drive home the long way because the road takes you up along the rim of an ancient volcano that makes up the Akaroa area. The view was amazing as we looked down on the calm blue water. The day was perfect, too, at nearly sixty degrees and sunny. Our favorite part of the drive was driving through the Misty Mountains. The mist hung over the mountains, and we even drove right through the mist some feathery white clouds.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. We drove along the skyline for quite awhile and finally found a hike. This hike led through a dark old forest to a massive tree. It was so big around that all of us together couldn't span it with our arms. It was the kind of tree Bilbo might have climbed to see out over Mirkwood.

We walked a short way on this trail to look at the view.

The view looking back at Akaroa.

The misty mountains were so cool!

We drove right through the mist as we went over the top.

So beautiful!

We will miss the rainforest hikes.

Dax is always making silly faces in pictures.

This tree was giant!!

The drive back to Christchurch wasn't too bad, and we stopped to skip rocks in a lake when we spotted some birds. There were black swans and cormorants, or what they call shags, nesting in the trees. The pukekos even waddled along the bank not far from us.

We have seen black swans all over New Zealand.

New Zealand was heaven for Mark.

There were lots of shags (cormorants) in the trees by this little pond.

We enjoyed the sunset before heading back to Christchurch.

Seth's favorite thing is to find beautiful shells and rocks.

When we arrived home the boys played pool on Randy's brother's table in the garage while his wife made spaghetti for dinner. After bribing them with licorice flavored ice cream (Dax and Seth had vanilla) we got them to bed early. This day may have been the best in New Zealand so far!