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.