December 20th, 6pm
Larnach Castle, near Dunedin, New Zealand
10 degrees Centigrade & cloudy

Well, at least it's not raining any more. Our delightful spell of weather ended this morning with grey skies, which quickly turned to rain as we got out of the Banks Peninsula. We then spent most of the rest of the day driving through torrential downpours, which occasionally lessened to mere drenchings. We traveled on the Inland Scenic Road which, in fair weather, would have given us good views of the mountains seen in the backdrop of the Rohan scenes in The Two Towers, but... not so much today. Just walls of low grey clouds and mist, today. Can't complain, it looks like it will brighten up for us for our Milford Sound trip and possibly for Christmas, so we're happy.

On Monday we flew in a convoluted way from Auckland to Christchurch. We came out of the terminal building, picked up our car, and got on the road. We first went downtown for a quick look at the city and its famous cathedral, and a walk along the Avon River -- very nice. We had a lovely early supper at the Viaduct, one of the restaurants beside the river, before retrieving our car from the multi-story carpark and getting back on the road.

Our destination was Akaroa, at the end of the highway, on the Banks Peninsula. The road started out flat, but as we got to the peninsula, hills rose sharply of our left. After skirting the base of a few the climb could no longer be delayed and we wound our way steeply up a hill to get our first of many amazing views. From the top the road diverged, and we chose, as it turned out, wisely: the tourist road. The road zigzagged across the windy summits of the hills surrounding Akaroa Bay and we had some spectacular views. My new digital SLR has the evidence, which I will post as soon as we get home!

We descended at last into Akaroa and checked into our B&B, the Wilderness House, a gorgeous Victorian-styled home with amazing gardens (featured recently in New Zealand House & Garden). Our hosts Jim and Liz were more than generous and gave us as warm a welcome and stay as could be wished.

Yesterday dawned fair and warm, and after a delicious breakfast we did an orientation walk of Akaroa, a small town founded by French settlers shortly after New Zealand was fully claimed by the English (with the Treaty of Waitangi between Great Britain and the Maori). We ended up at the main dock, where we found the Akaroa Black Cat Adventures offices. They set us up with wet suits and snorkle gear, and with 7 others and two guides we set out in a fast boat into the bay. Destination: wherever the dolphins were! And soon enough, we found them, lovely little grey, black and white coloured dolphins swimming up to the boat, and eventually, around us.

We had a magnificent and breathtaking close encounter with these wonderful creatures, who entertained us on the way back to shore with a remarkable, and very rare, aerial display of acrobatics! A fantastic dinner at the Harbour 71 restaurant concluded our best day in New Zealand so far.

For this evening, we're staying in the (glamourous) Larnach Castle in the (distinctly unglamourous) stables. Tomorrow, we're visiting a penguin sanctuary on the Otago Peninsula, then driving south to the Catlins for a farm stay night. Whee!!!

Addendum: the photos are from the Black Cat company's web site, so thanks (and apologies) to them for the links. Here is a link to the originals, and you can get from there to their booking form, too: Black Cat Group.
posted by Tom at 12:02 AM | link |