Late into Christchurch, had one hot day there and one drizzly and wet. A very English city. Double decker buses, gardens and even punting on the Avon.

Picked up the car and SE to the Banks Peninsula. Decided on 2 nights in Akaroa. (Maori- "long bay"). This town has an interesting history. Seems the French had a look at it and decided it would be a nice little add-on to their Pacific holdings, and so went back to France to round up a few settlers. Seven days before that boat arrived, the British planted a flag, called it their own, and that was that. ("Missed it by that much") So... The first settlers in this new British colony were 60 French and 7 Germans. I'm sitting here on Rue Jolie on the peaceful waterfront, tapping away at my journal.
Beautiful day yesterday, and so many wonderful walking trails. They don't hike here, they tramp, and it's not a trail, it's a track. Well marked tracks all over the place and plenty of bike trails, too. Also a lot of golf courses! Cheap, too! A Kiwi bus driver just came over to chat, and he said he talked w some Americans from Minnesota that found it cheaper to winter down here and drive around in a camper van golfing 18/day than going to Florida!

This bus driver is an example of the difference btwn Aus and NZ. Instead of poisonous snakes and spiders, wazillions of ants, aggressive trigger-fish, cyclones and now an outbreak of Dengue fever in Cairns, the biggest risk you face here (granted, daily), is having your ear talked off by one of the locals. So friendly!
Well, OK, there is the earthquake thing. Speaking of which, Christchurch has not recovered very well. Many condemned buildings still standing, giving the CBD a half ghost town, derelict feel. Many heritage buildings propped up w girders, and lots of locals expressing their frustration at the speed of recovery and how the reconstruction contracts are being tendered out. Sweet little city, I hope they get their poop in a group soon.

Local green-lipped mussels, lamb and good wine for dinner.

Absolutely lovely here. This deep natural harbour is an ancient caldera. How Gus thought the hikes he agreed to wouldn't be up and down hills, I don't know. Spent our second day (late start d/t rain) walking the trails, and exploring the cemeteries and monuments. Had dinner in. You need to be a bit creative w just one electric frying pan and no burners. Made a very respectable chicken fried rice w lots of veg and a big salad. Nice change from restaurants every night.

Woke up to a sunny day, shame we'll spent most of it in the car.
I could be wrong, as I have not yet been to our Atlantic provinces, but I don't think the Trans-Canada highway has many single track bridges. That along with the curving mountain roads and stoplights for construction and single lane progress there, makes for a slow 250km-ish day. Also ran into a pretty horrific accident on the road. A sheep transport overturned on those curvy mountain roads. Too much speed. A few dead and injured, the rest were being hauled out of the roof. Carnage and stock all over the road, took a while to pass that mess. It could have been worse, you could see by the skid marks and the missing guard-rail that the whole thing just about went over the edge.

Settled into Kiakoura. Pleasant seaside town. Had a walkabout good meal out.

Had a great walk around the peninsula on the 11th. Up over the top to the south bay, down along the fine grey shingle beach (like walking on lentils), there for a spell, back up to the cliff top above the point, down again this time to walk on a white stone beach. It was low tide, so we scuttled around the rocks on the point to the seal colony. Breathtaking views, sunny with a breeze, just a great walk. Back on to the road, we stopped at a little truck for lunch, and I had the best fish sandwich I've ever eaten!

For my birthday, I arranged to go swimming with the dolphins. Not the usual Mexico thing, but out to the undersea canyons that they frequent, to swim w 500-800 wild dolphins. Up long before the sun, outfitted and on the boat for a magnificent sunrise. Three separate stops to swim amongst the little guys. Not bottlenose, but the much smaller Dusty. They bob and swim around you, and like to make eye contact, then swim in ever tightening concentric circles until you can't spin that fast! At any time there may be as many as 6 within arms reach. Bloody cold and a bit of a swell. Only gramma here managed to keep her breakfast down. All the 20 year olds were green.

Not as much detail as I could happily give, but we have stopped at a McDonald's to use the Wi-Fi, so I'll post this now. North to Picton and the Queen Charlotte sound today.