Saturday In The Park

Wow, it’s Saturday and my last post was Wednesday! I know it says Tuesday but it was Wednesday in New Zealand, honest.

Thursday we were supposed to go swimming with dolphins. We drove from Christchurch over the mountains to a charming coastal town named Akaroa. It’s very French - at least if France sat on the edge of an extinct volcano. The view from lunch.

We checked in at Black Cat cruises, got outfitted in in wet suits and dive boots, and boarded the boat. We saw dolpins! They’re Hector’s dolphins, found only in New Zealand. They’re the smallest dolphins known.

They did not stick around the boat enough for us to actually get in the water. We went swimming with dolphins in the Florida Keys years ago at a research and rehabilitation facility where the dolphins were in an enclosure. These are wild animals and they did not want to play with us. First the whale watch and then the dolphins - we’re not doing well with the cetaceans on this trip! The ride was gorgeous anyway. I spent most of the trip standing at the bow - less likely to get seasick that way.

We did see New Zealand fur seals with pups!

We went back to Christchurch and went back to Manu for dinner because it was sooo good the first time. This time we sat at the bar and had a lovely time with the barman who not only flambéd my drink but also lit some cinnamon as well! Sorry, no video, just pictures of the drinks.

We walked back to the apartment along the river and had a quiet evening. Yesterday we packed up the car and headed for Aoraki Mt Cook, a National Park in the heart of the Southern Alps. There are no words to describe what it looks like.

The top photo includes my cocktail from dinner last night at the aptly named Panorama Restaurant. 

The National Park sits within the largest Dark Sky preserve in New Zealand. We didn’t sign up in time to get in to the astronomer talk so we had to look by ourselves. That was OK.

This was the view this morning.

We ate breakfast and headed off for a boat ride in Lake Tasman, which sits at the end of the Tasman Glacier and thus contains icebergs. 

We hiked back out to the car park and the bus brought us back to the hotel. We found lunch at the Edmund Hillary Café (he climbed Mt Cook before he tackled Everest) and then headed back out to try and hike to a  waterfall. Most of the hiking here is very challenging - steep, long, icy, technical - and the easier hikes are generally very crowded. David suggested we try bushwhacking toward a waterfall we’d seen from the road. We got a little closer and then I decided it wasn’t worth the risk of falling and twisting an ankle on the stones. We did get close enough to see more of the waterfall than before.

It was worth it, and I’m glad we headed back when we did. We came back, showered, changed, and went to the bar for a snack and a glass of wine. Now back in the room waiting for our dinner reservation at the Panorama Room (why not?). Tomorrow is a driving day to Dunedin to visit friends.