Today after breakfast, Walt's father's friend (or friend's father) who lives nearby drove us all through Christchurch, down through Lyttelton, and into Akaroa, which is another port town in a volcanic crater. It took us about 2 hours to get there, but we took scenic drives. The town was mostly a tourist town, but not in a bad way. It wasn't a tourist trap, but its main income is from tourism. We took a nature cruise which was on a small boat out into the harbor. We saw the Hector dolphin which is only found in this part of the world. Saw maybe five of them. The would swim up to the boat and dive out of the water. One of them sat on the top of the waves and slapped its tail against the water a number of times. It definitely knew we were watching it. We then saw a bunch of Shag's and a couple of blue penguins. Then we moved to the mouth of the harbor, where the waves were huuuuuge! We were really tossed around for a while. It was a lot of fun! I wanted to keep doing it. Then we went to the other side of the harbor where there were fur seals. They were mostly laying around. A couple were swimming. Not quite in the numbers as the leopard seals in La Jolla, but still really cool. We then went cruising around the harbor looking at all the remnants of the volcano around us. It was very pretty.
One thing in new zealand, is that there are always sheep. Everywhere you look, you'll find sheep. Lots of cows, too which I hear is a recent occurrance.
My internet connection here is spotty, and uploading pics takes forever, so it's been hard to show my pictures, but I'll upload them once I get the chance, probably once I get to antarctica.
