Christchurch to Akaroa:

As New Zealand is one of the best places in the world to swim with dolphins and as Debs had already swam with Dusky dolphins in Kaikoura, the chance to swim with one of the world’s rarest ‘Hector’s dolphins’ sounded too good a chance to miss. Picking up the campervan at just after 10am we quickly set off on the 1 1/2 hr drive to Akaroa, as we were booked on the 12pm trip. With minutes to spare we arrived at the wharf, found the office and went to check in. Within 20 minutes we were all clad in 5mm thick wetsuits and on board the boat that would hopefully take us to find some dolphins. The Hector’s dolphin is the smallest of the dolphins, measuring only about 1.4m in length and weighing only 105lbs. As they number only around 6500 and tend to stick in small groups of only 2-8 dolphins, finding them can be tricky. Fortunately for us the crew managed to spot some and we were quickly told to get ready to enter the water. Nothing can quite prepare you for getting into the sea with a water temperature of only 9 degrees centigrade, especially when it gets down the neck of your wetsuit! Buoyed on by the experience of being in the water with the dolphins, the cold didn’t seem to matter too much, as we floated towards them hoping to have a closer encounter. All we can say is that they are very fast and very clever, the amount of times we would be looking for them only for there to have been one behind us all the time is quite astounding. Debs managed to get a couple of them to circle round her, but generally we had to be content to be amongst them. After 45 minutes we had to leave the water, as the time is quite strictly managed so as to not have too much impact on these wild creatures. As to whether you could describe the experience as actually swimming with dolphins is up for debate, the water visibility is very poor and so you can only really see them on the surface. However it was still an amazing experience to be in the water with such a rare animal. The acrobatic display by them as we were leaving was just an added bonus, especially as they are not known for there jumping ability.
Returning to the town we had a well deserved hot shower and then set off to find a campsite for the night. Our campervan tour of the south island had got off to a great start!