Hector's Dolphins in Akaroa Harbour

Hectors Dolphins in Akaroa Harbour
Akaroa is a quaint little town on the east coast about 2 hours drive from Christchurch. Catriona told us we needed to go there, so we did, and we weren’t disappointed. Established by French whalers (in 1840 M. says), it has maintained it’s french character and “Je ne sais quois”. Place names were French, inhabitants names were French, our lunch was crepes, and the background Lingua Franca was actually French.
We wandered around in the sunshine soaking up the atmosphere and delicious coffee. Initially reluctant to go back on a boat, as Margie still had green memories of our last trip and we both felt that we couldn’t surpass our previous experiences, we eventually signed up for a tour of the bay/harbour in search of the local dolphins. Hector’s dolphins are the smallest of the species and only found in New Zealand. The boat we chose was run by locals from the town and clearly in competition to the other tour operator who had a bigger boat and offered swimming with the dolphins as well as sightings. The sea was rough enough to convince M that swimming was out of the question, so we went for the simpler option. It felt as if we were part of the family (albeit a French family) and Désiré and our skipper took good care of us supplying beer and home baking as we searched out the dolphins, whilst being careful to avoid the rougher patches of water and modifying speed to keep M’s lunch where it was meant to be.

We were not disappointed, and soon were cruising with a pod of dolphins dancing around the prow. The time flashed by and it was difficult to decide who enjoyed it more - us or the dolphins? We saw more as we cruised back including a mother with young, some White Flippered Blue penguins, Fur Seals and a small Blue Finned Shark. One of our best boating experience so far, certainly the most relaxed. Margie even felt well enough for calamari and pizza for dinner so it couldn’t have been too bad.