Still Windy—More Plan Changes

In Akaroa for our last day with NZ Trails, we were going to swim with Hector dolphins, said to be the world's smallest and rarest dolphin. However, once again, the weather was not on our side! A strong ‘southerly’ from Antarctica brought high winds and swells in the harbor, and no boats went out today.

Plan B was to spend a little time exploring the town, then go to a wildlife park. The French were the first Europeans to settle in Akaroa, in 1840, for the purpose of developing a whaling port, and farming the rich soil. The town still carries evidence of its French origins in the street names and flags flown.

Later, Courtney drove us to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, just outside of Christchurch. We got to see kiwi birds again, as well as wallabies and many other native birds. Before long it was time to really say goodbye to Courtney, Darcy and Leigh.

The strong winds didn’t delay our flight to Marlborough Sounds as we feared. But we did have to cross the blustery Cook Strait twice—once from Christchurch to Wellington, then back south to the small town of Blenheim at the top of the South Island. A friendly shuttle driver took us on the half-hour trip to the town where we leave for our next adventure. Dave partly lives off the land, raising a few sheep and cattle, fishing and hunting deer—such a pest to the native plants that locals are encouraged to help reduce their numbers. As we drove past industrial-scale plots of grapevines, he said we were looking at about 650,000 grape plants, and a vineyard owner could get a $28,000 return per hectare.Read more