Akaroa

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We woke up to bright sunshine and after yummy scrambled eggs a la Mrs C we made our way to the jetty and Black Cat Cruises, stopping for NZ coffee on the way. The catamaran took us out through the harbour along the inlet that Akaroa is situated in. Almost at once we saw Dolphins. These are Hector's Dolphins, really small and then we saw a mother and calf so cute. They played around the boat and liked to ride in the bow wave, we must have seen over 30 Dolphins swimming around the boat and up and down the inlet. Then we saw small blue Penguins just a couple swimming and then seals also swimming and some resting on the rocks. There were some baby Shags being fed by their mum and cormorants flying about. The sun shone all the time and the guide was really in to his wildlife a really great trip if ever you are this way.The cruise ship was in today so lots of people about which was really nice. We returned and Steve wanted to go for a swim, it's nice to let him do things on his own once in a while.We took ourselves to the library where you can get free Internet having spent $10 and it only lasted me a day. The Internet can always be found in NZ free in a library elsewhere sometimes they charge you sometimes they don't and the speed varies, we were told its because there are only 4million people living here to pay the costs.We then went for a very late lunch sitting by the sea we then wandered through town and along the beach again not the best beach in the world, but on a hot sunny day there is a delicious breeze. A glass of wine at Mon Maison and then we went on a Penguin visit. We were joined by two folk from Scotland a family from Australia and another from Germany. The 4 wheel drive vans took us to the top of the crater rim where there were outstanding views of the inlet that had been made by a volcano that erupted 200million years ago. The ride was up the side of a mountain on a single track winding gravel road with sheer drops on the side and as we neared the Penguin Colony the driver was looking out to sea to spot returning Penguins SCARY or what! We were taken to see some prehistoric insects that have been here for millions of years they were in what she called an insect hotel, its safe they have food and can't be attacked by predators then they let them out. When we arrived at the Penguin Santuary there were some sheep that needed bottle feeding and the children in the group attended to that much to their delight, an Asian looking child from Australia couldn't stop grinning. Then a baby penguin was brought out they were nursing it back to health and the children crowded around and the look on their faces was a picture. Donning camouflage jackets and armed with binoculars we then walked to a hide spotting shags in the trees and an Oyster Catcher which is more threatened than the baby penguin. Walking along we stopped at various nests and some babies were in moult. most of the babies were now at sea with their mothers. We stayed for a little while then walked in further along the cliff and from another hide we saw the penguins coming ashore. We could have stayed all night but it was tricky enough getting back along the cliff in the dimming light. As we left the compound we saw two baby chicks huddled against the fence they did look a bit scared. Not as scared as we would be travelling back along this winding steep single track gravel road in the dark, but we made it,

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