Akoroa

November 3
The first thing we did after breakfast was head downtown to pick up our car. After all the paperwork and insurance stuff, we were given the key and our adventure began.

The girl walked us out to the street and pointed down the road at our car. It was this tiny pink car. Yes pink. The steering wheel was on the right and it was so little. I've never driven such a tiny looking car but I was ready to conquer. We got in, I was driving, I adjusted the mirrors and such and then I pulled out into traffic, on the left side of the road of course.

I bet you are expecting some crazy crash story but no... I managed fairly well. I kept up a little mantra in my head and most times out loud "Turn into the left, turn into the left..." We worked our way out of town, only having to circle one block and then suddenly we were out of the city and on the highway. The speed limit was 100km/hour but I got no where near there all morning. The road to Akoroa was winding and up a mountain then down. It was so weird driving on the other side of the car and road, that I was not going fast for awhile.

We stopped at Hilltop to look at the view. It was beautiful.
There were some sheep in the field in front of us. Cute little lambs
Mom
and me
We continued on to Akoroa. It was a cute town right on the harbor. I had some tiny problems driving, missed parking spots, driving really slow... possibely drove the wrong way down a one way... I'm still not sure.

Finally I parked and we got some lunch. Here are some random pics.
We had scheduled a harbor cruise for the afternoon. They were going to take us around Akoroa harbor, hopefully we would see some dolphins and seals. Here was the boat we went out in.
Like usual I took tons of pictures but I'm only going to put a couple.
Some birds
Neat cave
End of the harbor
The great Pacific Ocean going on for miles and miles until you reach Antarctica.
Looking back at the harbor.
They took us out a little bit to look for Hector dolphins. They are the smallest dolphins in the world and are a little hard to spot in the big ocean. It took a little while but we got to see some!
There were some blue penguins too. It is hard to tell they are there but they are. They were even littler than the dolphins. I finally got to see a penguin :)
We even got to see a baby dolphin, not a new born but probably a year old or less.
My customary self portrait.
After awhile we had to head back to town. On the way we stopped to see some seals.
A salmon nursery
It was the best trip ever. It was the funnest thing we did on the whole trip. I loved it. After the tour, we walked around the little shops and stopped for icecream. This little guy wanted some too. Look how red his beak and feet are. He was really pretty.
The town closed down at 5 pm so we headed back to Christchurch. I decided that I had to at least go the speed limit once so on a straight stretch, I floored it to a whole 100km/hour. Woo! Crazy wild! :) Hehe, I was finally catching on to this driving business.

We ate dinner at Le Cafe near the art center and relaxed for the rest of the evening. It was a great day, the tour was awesome. Mom had a lot of fun too. Everything was so great.

Cheers everyone!