Leaving on a jet plane...another adventure

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We booked a shuttle to collect us from Jayn's to go to the airport, it was cheaper to book a flight from Auckland to Christchurch rather than do the train/bus/train and also 15 hours!!! so the 1hr 20 mins flight was a breeze!! We picked up the Jucy camper after much confusion on where to get it from! I hovered in the rentals car park at the airport with our bags whilst Dan went on a quest to find the Jucy office....a car park bloke came over and i explained so he radioed someone who called someone who got someone to pick us up...great success, we got the camper...proved to be way more pricey than we thought but it has been worth while, it's all an experience! It's a thirsty beast but we're having fun :-) We parked up the night in New Brighton in Christchurch which is along the beach front. The next day we sorted our train tickets and booked our swimming with dolphins trip. We made our way to Akoroa, beautiful scenery but very windy roads. We sussed out where to park up for the night and then the next day we were ready for our dolphin experience. We met at the jetty where we changed into our very appealing (fetching yet extremely tight) wetsuits, there was a group of 10 of us. The boat took us out into the harbour and we had to spot the dolphins assess if they were playful (u can't swim with them if there is a calf present as it is important for the mother and baby to bond, apparently the calf's look like rugby balls with flippers, didnt see any tho!) We spotted a pod and all climbed out the boat and jumped in to the open (COLD) sea! Thank goodness for wetsuits and those little shoes!! Was blooody freezing. I was handed the special 'dolphin stones,' u tap them under water and the curious little dolphins come right up to you. We were swimming with the Hectors Dolphin, the worlds smallest and rarest dolphin and only found in the waters off Akoroa in New Zealand. We formed a circle so we wouldn't miss any of the action and they were swimming all around and through the circle....Dan was lucky enough to have a couple play with him, they love the attention, Dan was pretending to chase them and they were playing along, amazing animals. Really great experience. There was an inviting hot shower afterwards, and also had hot chocolate on route back to the jetty. Good times.

The usual morning dilema is where to get a shower as we are 'freedom camping,' so we usually track down a sports centre or swimming pool. We found an outdoor pool at Timaru and it was heated! Great!! We paid next to nothing for a swim and then a great hot shower after....i was so knackered after swimming 12/14 lengths, swimming isnt really my bag just not much good at it! Dan found out from the lifeguard afterwards that it was a 50 metre pool!!!! No wonder!!!!!! Afterwards we headed to Mount Cook, great pictures on facebook...just driving up towards it was amazing, great scenery...on the way we passed Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki...the vibrant blue waters with the snowy mountains in the background.

Headed from Twizel to Dunedin, we had a long day of driving so just had a brief look around Dunedin before setting up for the night. Dundedin is a town based on Edinburgh, had a noticeable scottish vibe and was a lovely (but hilly) town to look round...the next day we headed to the worlds steepest street...Baldwin Street! Blimey my calves has just about recovered!! We saw a car come up really fast and no wonder he needed that speed behind him, he lived there so obviously knew the drill.

After Dunedin we drove to Te Anau....we stopped for lunch alongside a pretty lake on the way and completed a 295km trip by 6.30pm. We found a place to park up for the night behind the main strip of the town....around 11pm there was a knock on the door....'This is the camping warden,' DOH!!!!!!! We had to move on, headed towards Milford Sound (our next port of call) and parked off the road in the middle of nowhere, but there were fellow campers so no worries. We parked up, Dan turned off the headlights and it was pitch black...was interesting! But fine!! Milford Sound Blog coming soon..xxx

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