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!

More Christchurch

November 2
After breakfast, Mom really wanted to get her hair cut and Leslie had given me her gift certificate to get a massage that she had won at Crary bingo but didn't have time to go to. We wandered over to a salon that one of the ladies at the hotel recommended. We made an appointment for her then wandered over to the massage place and made me an appointment. The appointments were in the afternoon so we decided to head to cathedral square to do some shopping. This is the cathedral and a couple other pictures in the square.
There was this little cart in the square selling fried rice and noodles, I had this sudden craving for chinese food and had to have some noodles. We ate lunch in the square and I scared seagulls away just for fun.

After I had my massage and Mom had her hair did, we wandered through the a little park on the way back to the hotel.
Mom's new super cute hair
For the evening, we had tickets to see a Maori show and a tour of Willowbank Reserve. I was finally going to see some kiwi birds! I was pumped.

First was the show. It was a little cheesy and staged but fun none the less. We learned some history from our guide then took a little walk through the woods. This is our guide.
Then all of a sudden some native Maori jumped out of the bushes and challenged our chief! (poor kid was the only man in our group and thus automatically the chief of our group)
So our chief did the peaceful thing and picked up the greenery offering. Then met and shook hands with their chief.
We learned some more about the people, their houses, games they played and some fighting techniques.
Then it was time to gather and have a show. They danced and sang for us. In respect to the performers there was no picture taking. The women did this dance with these ball thingys and then we got to go up and perform the dance.
I sucked royally at this and could not catch the damn swinging ball. It was a good laugh though.
Then the men did a haka or a kind of war call. Of course our chief had to learn it and he did a fantastic job by himself.
It was a good time, lots of singing and chanting and dancing.

Afterwards, it was time to go on our animal tour to the kiwi house. The first thing the guy did was feed some eels. I'm sorry but these are just nasty and creepy. This picture is for Damian. Yuck!
Then we walked into a little enclosure where there were these little cuties living.
We fed them too. I wanted to take one home with me, they were so cute and friendly.
There were tons of other birds but I wasn't really able to get any good pictures. They were too far away or behind fences. Here are some pigs.
Or rather one pig, the other one never lifted his head out of his dish which was right up against the fence.

And then... we got to the kiwi house. There was a little display before we walked in. Here is a kiwi egg in comparision to other eggs.
A little stuffed adolescent kiwi.
and a kiwi skeleton.
The anticipation was intense, we were about to see a real live kiwi. We walked into the kiwi house... we could hear them moving... and making cute little noises... and then suddenly there was a kiwi!
Pretty cool huh... I forgot to tell you, they are nocturnal animals and live in a little dark hut. We could take pictures but no flash, no disrupting or scaring the kiwis. We watched them for awhile and trust me, they are some of the coolest birds. They were super cute and funny to watch.

Here are some other birds we saw on the tour. This is not a kiwi but a bird that looks similar and they live in the daylight.
Mom and I had some time after the tour to wander around the rest of the reserve. More pictures of animals.
This duck looked messed up but I think this is how they looked normally...
Pre-teen ducks in the bushes
Look at the baby...
This little guy was leading the way
And of course, more birds. They were my favorite.
This little guy talked and whistled with me. I wanted to take him home too. :)
And then lastly a lemur, just because.
So ends the tour of NZ animals. We rode back in the free shuttle with a bunch of the performers. The shuttle driver recommended a buffet... not so good. I made sure I ate about 10 dollars worth of dessert to make up for the lack of good dinner food.

Time for bed. Next day was a big one. I was going to try my hand at driving. Sounds easy until you realize that they drive on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel is on the other side of the car. But I will leave that tale for the next entry. Cheers!