We arrive at Christchurch airport to meet Alex who has been traveling for at least 36hours to get to NZ. It's great to see him again after 7.5 months but it's also a little surreal to have some one we know travelling with us. He looks a little spaced out so we decide on a campsite close to Christchurch with facilities such as showers allowing Alex to freshen up and have a good nights sleep. That night donned with our new warm things - sleeping bag, roll mat with foil lining there is a northerly wind which means it's really warm and we are too hot in our new sleeping bags.

The next we head off to Akaroa to swim with Hectors Dolphins. These are the smallest dolphins and only about 4000 left in the wild. We get into thick wetsuits and booties and head out to sea in a boat that fits 10 of us "dolphin swimmers" and 2 local guides. We are instructed to keep look out for the dolphins dorsal fin that look like Micky Mouses ear. There is a decent swell and the boat driver stops a few times to check if we are all ok or if we need sick bags. We see a few penguins swimming and then we see the dolphins. They are really small, about 3ft long and surprisingly they really do have a micky mouse ear type dorsal fin, so cute! We get into the water and it's a chilly 16C! Brrrr! The wetsuits are thick enough that we don't really need to do much to stay afloat. We were advised that we need to keep the dolphins interested in us so that they stay around and to do this we could tap things under water or sing Kings of Leon into the water using our snorkle. For some reason, (probably the big waves and a boat near) the theme tune of Howards Way came to mind so I set to work "La la la-ing" that into the water as loud as I can. The guides on the boats would shout to us when dolphins were coming close which turned into a bit of a comedy sketch when you finally realised your name was being called to turn right and you go left or the dolphin disappears. My lefts and rights were really not working whilst bobbing about at sea. The dolphins had lovely colourings and did swim quite close but always keeping a couple of metres distance.

Once back on shore, showered and warmed up we headed off in Shane to the Mount Cook national park which was about 4-5 hours away from where we were. We picked up fresh fruits and veg from farm shops on route and arrived at a very wet Mount Cook village. Deciding it is too wet to camp we stopped in a backpackers.