Soaking up the scenery

Sailing on the south Pacific Ocean.

Just when we thought our driving on the crazy steep windy roads was over, we got one last chance. We drove1.5 hours down to Akaroa. It was actually a beautiful drive over the mountain and through the valley. Akaroa is a summer vacation land sort of like Duluth or Hayward. We booked a sailboat cruise through the bay and out to the Pacific ocean with promises of penguin, seal and dolphin sightings. The booking agent at the i-Site (information center) said we would not see penguins. We have wanted to see penguins since Dunedin, when they were out to sea.

The town was super busy because of the holiday weekend. It was impossible to find a place to park. Then we parked at the wrong dock, so we had to start all over again. Bob was nice enough to park the car while we ran down to the sailboat to let them know we were there.

We used the boat motor to motor away from the dock. We thought we would be sailing out, but we used the motor most of the way out. On our way we saw a seal swimming. I guess this is pretty unusual. During the day they are usually sunning themselves on the rocks. They search for food at night. It turned out to be a super nice fall day. The guide thought maybe he was taking a swim to cool off.



A little further out, we came across a small pack of penguins. Our boat crew was a bit surprised because the penguins were pretty close to shore early in the day, and they were also in a small pack. We were happy because we finally got to see the penguins.



As we approached the mouth of the harbour, we encountered our first group of dolphins. These dolphins were Hector dolphins, and are only found off of the coast of New Zealand. They are also some of the smallest dolphins in the world. They were pretty curious, and came close to our boat. It was quite a site to see.



Eventually we made it to the South Pacific Ocean, and the crew hoisted the sails and shut of the engine. The weather was nice and warm in the sun, but in the shade it was a bit cool. After a bit of sailing, we turned around and headed back in to the harbour. On the way back to port, we went by a fur seal colony and saw some more seals. We saw a few more packs of dolphins, and we even saw a mother with her baby calf swimming along. that was pretty special, as they came within about 6 feet of the boat, so everybody got a great view of the pair.

Our sailing journey came to an end after 3 hours. All in all, it was a lot of fun, the weather was great, and we saw a lot of beautiful animals. Once back on shore, we headed over to the main pier and we bought some fish sandwiches. There is a fisherman that brings his catch in to shore, and his wife cooks up the fish right there on the pier and serves up sandwiches. They were delicious! We ordered a Salmon sandwich, and also a lemon fish sandwich. They were served on ciabata buns. We grabbed a few beers and ate our sandwiches on the shore of the harbour. It was the perfect end to a great day.