Haere mai (Welcome) to New Zealand



After my final goodbyes to friends and 'family' at the airport, I was on my way to....

Sydney.

Yup, that's right. Anywhere you want to go, you have to go through Sydney, where I was going to get to spend 4 hours just hanging around. Luckily, my friend Nina was in Sydney and decided to make the trip to the airport to keep me company. After various FaceBook messages (who knew life could be so hard without a cell phone) we finally met up at the international terminal where we shared a final drink together before I boarded my plane for Christchurch.

 

I arrived around midnight in Christchurch and made my way to my hostel (one of the few still going after the earthquakes) which was an old jail. I don't know why I continue to do this to myself. You think I would have learned after staying just metres away from Port Arthur and not getting any sleep. At least here there were no ghost stories to deal with, just my own imagination. It also helped that I was so tired that my imagination managed to stay away most of the night.

 

The next morning I caught a bus to the Antarctic centre so that I could hop on my tour bus. This was the extent of my tour of Christchurch. With all the earthquakes tours don't even go here anymore which is an absolute shame. While I was in New Zealand there was tonnes in the news about whether to re-build the cathedral and re-develop downtown or not. Apparently, most of the population has moved away with no plans to return. Here's hoping Christchurch can recover.

 

I climbed on my bus and we headed off towards Kaikoura.  The great (and not so great) about hop on and hop off tours is that you are constantly meeting new people and others are staying behind. I was joining a bunch of people who were at the end of the tour but they were more than willing to invite me in and I quickly became a member of the group.

 

When we arrived in Kaikoura we were immediately dropped off to go swimming with some dusky dolphins. It was amazing, other than the freezing cold water. Thank God for wetsuits and hot water on the boat. You'd be swimming around, looking for something and then all of sudden this shadowy shape would be bolting right towards you. I mean.... right towards you. You'd start panicking and then the dolphin would turn on a dime and blow right by. Then you'd see something flash out your periphal vision and a dolphin would fly by from behind. It was insane and manic and one of the coolest things I have every done. Check out just a little bit of what it was like below. Also, if you listen really closely, you can hear them talking and the funny noises we were supposed to make to attract them.  I really think the company just told us to do that so they could laugh at us 'cause we sounded stupid, for sure.

 

 

Just hanging on the boat

Some of my dolphin friends

Looking hot as always in the snorkel gear

The view on this coast is absolutely spectacular. Real Mountains!!!!

On the walk back to the hostel, we were able to enjoy the view as well as the sunset.

Back at the hostel, it was time for some bonding with my group. We had some amazing free soup (which really warmed me up after sub-zero water) and the best fish and chips that I have ever had EVER. Oh soooo gooood! Then it was off to the bar for some cider and Quiz Night. Even though the quizmaster was sick and they weren't going to have it, we made them do it anyway. Yay for Tui beer bottle caps. Unfortunately, my all Canadian team was a little lax on New Zealand history and pop culture, so we had to race drink beer through a straw to not be last. Talk about bloatage. It took me a few minutes to recover, but we won.

The next morning we were off to check out one of the coolest places in New Zealand. Maybe even in the world. It definitely rivalled swimming with dolphins.

Up the coast from Kaikoura, there is a little creek that goes down to the ocean. If you follow that creek up, you come to a pool with a waterfall, which is beautiful, but that's not the cool part. In this pool are seal lion pups playing and jumping around. They also like to pose for pictures. I could have stayed for hours. The pups make their way up the creek from the sea lion colony at the beach. Here at the pool, they are safe from sharks and other sea creatures that eat them. They stay until they get hungry, then go back to get food from mom.

This was my first day in New Zealand. I wrote on my FaceBook page that it could only get better. I don't think that I was entirely honest with that statement. I'm pretty sure this first day was the best one. Even though I made some good friends and had some other amazing experiences in the next 20 days, this day really made New Zealand for me.