Well it is bitter sweet as we are almost finished with New Zealand but are thoroughly looking forward to Australia. It's been 5 weeks in this beautiful country and we've seen and done a lot of amazing things so it'll be hard to say goodbye. That being said Australia, and 32 degree temperatures are only a couple days away. We also can't wait to meet up with our friend Jen from back home, who flies into Cairns a couple days after us.
After leaving Dunedin here in New Zealand we headed up the east side of the South Island, stopping in Lake Tekapo and then off to Christchurch. Along the way there are some great sites as you drive along the east side of the Southern Alps and see amazing views of Mount Cook and the turquoise blue waters of the Glacier fed lakes.
We arrived in Christchurch with six days to spare before we have to fly out to Cairns so we decided to head north to Kaikoura, three hours north of Christchurch right on the east coast. This smaller fishing village is unique in that it sits at a point of land that juts directly out into the Pacific Ocean. Because of it's unique geography and deep underwater canyons rich with food for all marine life this place is an ideal location for fishing, whale watching, sea-bird watching, dolphin watching, and what we came for, swimming with the dolphins. Dusky dolphins permanently occupy the area right off the coast and only ever leave if Killer Whales come into the area. This means you have extremely good chances of finding their huge pods playing in the ocean. Today we went out and swam with a pod of 300 Dusky Dolphins, in the winter they can see as many as 1000 at a time. It was truly an incredible sight and was even more amazing to be able to swim with them. A group of us put on wet suits and snorkels and the guide boat found the pod. From there we all slipped into the water from the back of the boat and swam around, 'entertaining' the dolphins. They were swimming right underneath us and directly in front of our faces, enjoying our company. We could try and make sounds through our snorkels to attract them more; as stupid as we sounded to the rest of the group on the boat it worked brilliantly in getting the dolphins to be really playful. Now we are back in Christchurch and will enjoy our last day relaxing around and walking around the city which has some great gardens and parks for the public. We fly out early Wednesday morning to begin the next leg of our trip.
It still blows my mind how blue all the water is
Nicola and I in front of Lake Pukaki with Mount Cook in the background
Moeraki Boulders on the way to Lake Tekapo
Swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura