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A long term guest staying at the hostel wanted to go somewhere on my days off so we decided to head over to Akaroa which is a small french town on the Banks peninsula. It's about an hour and a half drive away from Christchurch. Louise drove us out there after she was finished work on the friday afternoon. The sun came out for the afternoon and the ride over to Akaroa was really nice. Very scenic.

We stopped in town first and took a few pictures and explored the harbour area.We decided to go for dinner first to the famous fish and chips place in Akaroa. I of course didn't have the fish but the beer battered chips were awesome! Louise and I then headed out to Onuku Farms Hostel where we would be staying. It's about 10km's out of town. It's up on this huge windy road overlooking the peninsula.

My friend Carolyn who I met in Picton and was actually a receptionist at The Old Countryhouse before I got here is now working out there so she greeted us and got us all set up. My boss Tom used to work out here so he managed to swing me a deal and I got my bed for free :) We sat outside having a couple of drinks and visiting with Carolyn. We were in bed pretty early as we had to get up early for the DOLPHIN SWIM!!!!!

At 7:45am the next morning we had to be up and ready and Simon the cute young helper got us all checked in and took our money. Then we suited up in our wet suits and I must say I looked HOT hahaha. There was 6 of us going out along with Simon and Jeff (the owner). We all hopped into the back of Jeff's truck and he drove us down to the shore. We waited there while Jeff got the boat and brought it over to us.

Pictures

It was a really cold, overcast and windy day that day but we managed. We all piled into the small boat and made our way out through the peninsula looking for dolphins. We spotted a couple of dolphins and slowed the boat down and geared up with flippers and snorkels and then me and one other girl hopped in the water which is basically in the middle of the ocean and we had wild dolphins swimming around us. They are hector dolphins and are the rarest dolphins in the world and are quite a bit smaller then the normal dolphins.

It was really cool to be swimming around with these animals in the water. They are just as curious about us as we are of them. We hopped back in the boat after a bit and we got some dolphins to swim with the boat. I was loving it and riding right up at the front of the boat where you could see them swimming right under the bow.

But, one of the girls was sea sick which cause Louise to get sea sick and Jeff had to take us back in. After we got back to shore Jeff told me that he was really glad to have had me on this trip as I was the only one who seemed to really enjoy it and get into it. So that was cool of him to say. I was such a girl though giggling and ooohing and ahhing with the dolphins.

We had a cup of hot tea and a snack on shore and then we piled back into the back of the truck and up the hill. But poor Louise still wasn't feeling good and threw up over the truck haha. Poor girl. We de-suited back at the farm and we all had hot showers to warm up and ate some brunch. It was sad to leave Onuku as it's such a relaxing place. We packed up and headed back into town to look at some of the shops.

I bought some yummy fudge and we stopped at a cheese factory where I got some cheese curds!!! MMMM.

Was a really good trip away even if it was only for one night but what an amazing experience!!!

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