Arriving into Christchurch nowadays is a bit surreal - the city centre (or the bits you can access) is a mixture of crumbling buildings, abandoned buildings, empty sections where buildings once stood all interspersed between normal functioning buildings. It really is a strange sight. The other surprising thing about Christchurch is that it is very difficult to get hostel accommodation - you have to book it in advance - that's because although there has been a drop in tourism there has also been a loss of 1500 beds in the city centre! Anyway I spent the night in Christchurch and was treated to what has become normal in Christchurch nowadays and was awoken by an earthquake in the middle of the night - just a little one but enough to wake me up!

The next morning I was off to Akaroa to meet Brit - a girl who I met while learning to dive in Tonga - who very kindly invited me to Akaroa and as she was working for the dolphin swimming company there she said she might be able to wangle me a free dolphin swim. Akaroa is situated on the banks peninsula, just south of Christchurch. It is a beautiful part of the world, formed millions of years ago by 3 volcanoes erupting from the sea and Akaroa harbour is the crater of one of these volcanoes. I arrived off the bus into Akaroa where Brit met me and we went straight to the dolphin tour shop and immediately got on a dolphin swimming tour. It was really busy in Akaroa that day because there was a cruise ship in town. Because the harbour at Lyttleton has been damaged by the earthquakes all the cruise ships are now calling into Akaroa.

Akaroa harbour is home to the Hector's dolphin, the world's smallest and rarest (of the ones that are studied) dolphin. So getting to swim with them is a real treat - especially as they are only found off the coast of NZ. I got into the water and then the dolphins just swam around us it was amazing! They were so quick and graceful in the water and really playful too! Such an amazing experience. We spent the afternoon sitting drinking cider while looking out over the beautiful Akaroa inlet and putting the world to rights! The following day Brit was working so I went for a bit of a walk to the top of one of the hills behind Akaroa. It was a really nice walk providing beautiful views over Akaroa - unfortunately some low lying cloud prevented me from seeing the views out over the pacific but it was an enjoyable (if somewhat challenging) walk nonetheless.

I returned to Christchurch that evening to get my bus to Mt cook the following morning. True to form while I was out checking my emails there was another decent (4.6 I think) earthquake - however as I was outside and walking at the time I didn't even notice. When I returned to the hostel everyone was asking of I felt it and that it had been a long one - I was completely oblivious!