We had a great day on Banks Peninsula.    We started by driving to Barry's Bay so we could visit Barry’s Bay Cheese Company and watch them making cheese the 150 year old "traditional way." 

There we met a couple, Park and Jill Sims, who used to live in Palmer Lake, CO, when Park taught Physics at the Air Force Academy. They live in England now, and are in NZ with a group of Jaguar owners who shipped their cars here so they could drive around the South Island for a month. We hope to catch up with their group some time in the next four weeks.

Then we hustled back to Akaroa so we could catch a boat trip with Akaroa Dolphin. The boat can take 40 passengers but there were only six of us today, so we enjoyed almost a private tour.  

We went the length of the "long harbor" and then out into the Pacific Ocean. We saw Hector dolphins, which are the rarest and smallest marine dolphin. They are so cute.   We also saw the Little Blue penguins at sea; we have seen them on land but never while they were swimming and hunting food. They look as if they are flying in the water. Once we arrived at the Pacific Ocean, we saw fur seals, which were almost hunted to extinction.

Tomorrow we are planning to go to Okain’s Bay, on the other side of the peninsula, to a campground on the beach with no hookups.  I doubt if my internet will work there.