So I went on a swimming with dolphins adventure, which was super exciting! The water wasn't exactly calm though, so I was glad I had taken preventative sea-sickness measures (in spite of it looking very calm within the harbour). It was so exciting spotting Dolphins that that kind of distracted from the queasiness too. The type of Dolphins in Akaroa harbour are only found in New Zealand, and are just over a metre long. They tend to stay in small groups (pods) of up to three... The first ones we saw were a group of three, tearing towards us from straight ahead. They were so graceful and pretty! We got in the water as they came back and forwards through us a few times, before heading off again. The water was very cold, but our amazing thick wetsuits did a very good job of keeping us warm and buoyant. Some of the waves (swell really, they didn't break into white waves) seemed to be a couple of metres high, though it's a little difficult to judge with untrained eyes! After that we saw lots of Dolphins coming and going, but none really stuck around for long. We did get back in the water later but didn't get much interest from the Dolphins-from the reaction of the guides it wasn't an especially good trip on the interaction front, but even seeing them for a bit was well worth it, and it was a very exciting boat ride and swim even without the Dolphins!
There was enough time for a potter around the little town, and eat fish and chips (to which the mans reaction to my question of "are there any forks" was "you're no kiwi are ya!?") then got the bus back...
going to see another show from the arts festival tonight, then onwards to pastures new in the morning :-)
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