Solly & Jude & The World: It all went swimmingly

Sunday March 13th

We took the chance last night and this morning, to organise our luggage and clothes, including working out how and where we will do the final van clean before the handover. Luckily we'd only used about 3/4 of our weight allowance on the way here, and had no limit on the number of bags we checked, so managed to accommodate all our souvenirs and presents with the extra rucksack we'd bought in Auckland. We popped into the iSite early to get a Hanmer keyring and then made our way to the Banks Peninsula to spend our last full day in Akaroa.

This was not a memorable drive, especially compared with so many of the others we've had this trip - the ring-road does a great job of missing Christchurch completely though - until we reached the final 30 km which took us past the black swan-covered Lake Ellesmere and one of the amazing winding, up and over roads we have come to love. We did drive through a town called Little River, with an interesting take on accommodation - they had created or refurbished silos to make places for tourists to stay overnight.

We stopped at the top of the hill with a great view down to the bay which Akaroa town sits in - truly photogenic even in poor light - and then up and over a couple more hills and into the French-inspired town. There's a Top10, of course, so we made our way up hill to it and booked in for a final time.

View from the road, as you come "over the top" into the peninsula

The town centre, from the Top 10 holiday park

We then took the stepped track down into the town and walked through the lovely roads of shops and cafés, and across to the wharf where tomorrow's dolphin swimming trip is due to start from. They confirmed it was likely to go ahead despite the days of cancellations following the recent storm, as today's swells are only two metres, and there's no significant wind.

We stopped for fish and chips and did a bit of shopping with Dave buying a lovely black shirt and me some more fudge. We had an ice-cream while sitting watching the gulls, but when we reached the local mini-golf course, found it had shut for the day. Luckily the pub hadn't, so we relaxed over a pint (or two) before attempting the big hill home.

We had an early night, having decided where we would park for our trip in the morning, and transferred our excess supplies to the campsite's kitchen and shower block for the use of fellow travellers.

Monday March 14th

We packed up the van as far as possible and dressed in our swimming gear with easily removable clothes over the top and headed to Akaroa wharf for our date with dolphins. Once assembled, our group was spilt into two boats and we were all provided with a (surprisingly) comfortable and well-fitted wetsuit and waterproof shoes, and taken on board. Our boat was the bigger, but had a slightly smaller group, including just a couple of people not prepared to swim.

The crew was a captain and look-out, and a trainee who was very good at giving out the safety talk and necessary instructions about the trip. We headed out to sea, although not too far out, and the captain kept in touch with other craft to find the dolphins.

We came across several small groups which were feeding or moving through the area, but didn't get the chance to get in the water for over an hour. We finally did, and (to no-one's surprise more than mine) I was just about first in the water. They gave us snorkels and masks but these weren't helpful and I abandoned mine quickly. Dave and I were quite far apart but both clearly saw the wonderful dolphins we'd come to see. These were the world's smallest and rarest ocean-going dolphins - Hector's dolphins, and they are barely a metre long and a range of greys and blacks. It seemed the two dolphins weren't impressed with us, so swam away. And then came back. And then swam away again.

We were brought back out of the water once the animals have left, and the captain moved us back towards the town as our time began to run out. We had another chance to get into the water but again the dolphins failed to interact with us in any way, so we were taken back to base. The crew cheered us up with hot chocolate and ginger biscuits, and gave us a refund of about a third of the cost as, although we'd swam where the dolphins were swimming, they had expected us to have a better experience.

Getting out of our wetsuits was more tricky than getting into them, and showering among the others was like being back at school. The shop had nice souvenirs, including the necessary keyring, and we left and went in search of lunch. We found Bully Hayes on the main street and enjoyed whitebait fritters and a pulled pork burger.

We emptied all the required parts of the van, including the bin, and drove back along the fun road off the peninsula. At one point we crossed a deep ravine on which one of the areas famous bungee jump sites was situated on an iron bridge - not much chance we'll be stopping here at any point - no matter how many times we come back!

We struggled slightly to find the Maui site - the satnav and written directions didn't seem to match up - but got there with plenty of time to spare and sat and relaxed once we'd offloaded everything and while they went over the van to check we hadn't made too many new dents! Paperwork completed we accepted the offer of a taxi to our nearby hotel, but had to evacuate the building while we waited when a Fire alarm practice was held. I had firmly left my H&S hat back at work, but this was somewhat chaotic (it seemed to be a new drill and no-one knew quite what to do). It was over quickly, however, and our lovely driver picked us up and gave us the quick trip to the Sudima hotel. This was all on the bigger airport campus, so was chosen to give us a quick and easy taxi ride to the departure lounge the following morning.

Having both taken the chance to have a long soak in the bath, we sat in the hotel bar for a couple of hours enjoying a couple of beers and watching the Bangladesh versus Oman game in the Dharmasala T20 cricket. In order to prolong the holiday mood, we also ordered room service, rather than eating in the restaurant.

Tuesday March 15th

We didn't have to be at Christchurch especially early, having a noon flight to Singapore, but having checked out (deciding that we would use the time we had to be at the airport to have breakfast rather than buying it at Sudima), we got an almost immediate chance of a minibus transfer, so were there a little before 9am.

We went though all the usual check-in procedures and then settled into a nice restaurant for a hearty meal and to pass the time. Our flight was on time and we sadly boarded and left New Zealand to head for home.