Dolphins, Spiders and Caves Oh My!

This weekend we finally both had two days off in a row and got to do some stuff around Canterbury. Saturday we drove out to Banks Peninsula and went on a boat tour of LeBons Bay with Gary from the LeBonsBay Backpacker and about 8 Germans. On the boat trip we got to see some amazing wildlife in its natural habitat. The best were all the Hector's Dolphins.

The Hector’s dolphins are the rarest dolphins in the world and are endemic to New Zealand. The Hector’s dolphin was named after Sir James Hector. Sir James was the curator of the Colonial Museum in Wellington (now the museum of New Zealand - Te Papa). Adults grow to be between 1.2 and 1.4 meters long. The forehead of the Hector’s slopes down to the tip, so it does not create a protruding beak like the bottlenose dolphin. It has a small, rounded dorsal fin – all other species of dolphin found in New Zealand waters have crescent shaped fins that are more pointed than the Hector's Dolphins.

We also saw some seals and two pairs of nesting yellow eyed penguins. As well as same some shags, herons and other birds. The water was a bit choppy because of the wind and one of the German girls who was obviously sea sick said that she would rather be a sheep on land than a dolphin in the water in NZ. Gary the boat driver was joking back and asked if she was sure because "Dolphins are protected in New Zealand and you know what happens to the sheep here? We eat them." After the nice boat trip we went back to the Backpackers for a cup of tea and then hiking later in the day at Hinewai Reserve. Then drove to Akaroa for an ice cream and then over to Pigeon Harbor and Diamond Harbor before returning to Christchurch.

On Sunday we drove towards the west coast just past Castle Hill to hike through the Cave Stream. This is a 362 meter hike upstream in a river through a limestone cave with crystal clear cool water and small waterfalls. In this cave's dark zone lives a rare spider, the cave harvestman. It is known to live only in this cave and only 1 other on the West Coast. We saw a couple of these spiders but not too many. It was an amazing hike through the cave.


Last week we went out to a nature reserve in Christchurch to see some Pukeko.
And took a trip to New Brighton Beach.

West Coast & Back

Nick, Ryan, & I went on our first road trip the first few days in December. Nick then continued down to Dunedin and Queenstown. Here are the details of our quick loop over to the West Coast and back through Aurthor's Pass.

Hanmer Springs - The first stop on this trip was a town called Hanmer Springs. Which is famous for (you guessed it!) hot springs which were opened in 1883. We stayed at a camp ground and went to the hot springs the next day. They have 12 pools of varying temperatures. After a relaxing day we headed on to the next stop.

Blacks Point - Just pass Lewis pass is Blacks Point, a historical gold mining town from the 1870's. We stopped here to take a quick hike to a mine called the Energetic mine. It was a nice hike through a forest area.

Greymouth - We first reached the West Coast of NZ at Greymouth, which is the largest town on the west coast. We camped at a holiday park that was right at the end of the Greymouth Airport runway and right on the beach. I think that is the only time that we have slept at the end of a runway. It was not too busy of an airport so that was a good thing. When were cooking dinner we meet a German girl and a guy from France that were also staying at the Holiday park. And we saw some cool flightless birds called Weka running around the tent area. In the morning we drove North up the coast to see the Pancake Rocks, first stopping to hike out to a peninsula called Point Elizabeth. It was a very tropical rain forest hike until we were at the end of the peninsula.

Punakaiki/Pancake Rocks - The Pancake Rocks are located at Dolomite Point. They are fascinating rocks that do look like dozens of stacked pancakes.

Monteith's Brewery Tour - After looking at the Pancake Rocks we headed back to Greymouth and toured the Monteith's Brewery. It is the oldest Brewery in NZ and originally was around to supply Gold miners with beer.

Aurthur's Pass - Driving back to the east we camped in Waimakariri Valley and woke up to...not rain, but our first experience with hundreds of Sand Flies. After packing up camp quickly and eating a breakfast of Muesli and yogurt in the car we headed into the main part of Authur's pass. There we stopped at the visitor's center and then decided to hike up to Devil's Punchbowl Falls. It was a really beautiful waterfall. After the hike before we left we were back at the visitor center parking lot and Ryan was mentioning that we hadn't seen any Kea parrots and he would like to before we left there. Almost as if on command, two green Keas landed on the hood of our parked car. They are cheeky parrots that are very curious. Our sight seeing in Aurthur's Pass now complete we headed on.

Cave Stream - We stopped at cave stream and would have hiked through the river along this 365 meter trail through a cave but we didn't have our head lamps with us so this will have to be a hike for another time. We did stop in Springfield for lunch and had some yummy pies.

Back in Ch.Ch. - This week back in Christchurch was a typical week. I did however get to see the resident Wizard of Christchurch who came into the Cathedral Cafe for a flat white coffee. This Sunday we had a nice brunch with our flat mates, Libby & Caleb, at the Globe cafe. I ordered a large mocha and it came in a bowl. It was definitely a LARGE coffee. Then we all headed to a flea market and then to a beach on the Banks Peninsula to get some round stones for the garden. We then drove back home through the Port Hills overlooking Littleton Harbor to Christchurch. After a nice day we had a BBQ in the back yard because the weather was so nice.