27. Heading to Akaroa and home

delicious food at the Greedy Cow

Next morning we got up early and hit the road since we had a long drive to Akaroa. I continued my apparent sampling of every meat pie I could find and had one for breakfast then another for “lunch” a couple hours later. The first was really good. It was at a place called Greedy Cow. With a name like that you expect the food to be good. The second was a stop on the side of the road to take a bathroom break and switch drivers. It was okay. The pie had a lot of gravy and wasn’t that flaky. I also tried a scotched egg since it looked interesting. This is a hard boiled egg inside of a sausage type coating. Not a fan. I tried a milkshake and decided that the “thick” shake might be more what I’m used to in the states since I had one in Dunedin that was half milk so a bit runny. Apparently thick means the foamy part of the shake which is very light and fluffy. Not a fan of that either. At least the place wasn’t expensive and the people were nice.

the Greedy Cow

scotched eggs

too much gravy and not enough meat in this pie

first view of Akaroa

The last bit of road into Akaroa wound through mountains overlooking water and it was gorgeous! The pictures don’t do it justice. Akaroa is a small quaint town. There are a couple main streets and then small cross streets between them. On the flip side, there are a lot of posh hotels so the nicest place I could find was pretty basic. There were a few bugs in the bathroom. However the view was incredible. It was right on the water. Our dolphin tour was just a 10 minute walk away. We dropped our stuff off and walked over. The waterfront has lots of cute shops. I saw a “swim with dolphins” tour but did not choose that as it costs quite a bit more and many times you can’t swim with the dolphins as the waves are too strong or there is a baby dolphin about.

view from our motel

Hectors Dolphins

Hector’s Dolphins are the world’s smallest dolphins. They are 5 feet or less in length from nose to tail. And of course they are super cute! Almost as soon as we got on the boat they offered us a welcome drink. I got the mango juice which was surprisingly delicious! We had just a short cruise out to marine sanctuary. I had our first spotting…it was off to the right of the boat and definitely not a wave. I called out and waved at the captain. A minute later he stopped and told us we were now in the marine reserve and identified my sighting as the infamous “log dolphin”. Real dolphins won’t just sit on the surface. They will go above and below the water. We all had a good laugh about that but soon we were too busy looking at dolphins as they came out of nowhere in groups of 2-5. They seemed to swim over and check us out then decide we weren’t that interesting and kept swimming on.

2 dolphins swimming away picture 1

two dolphins swimming away picture 2

I got a few decent videos and some pictures. Unfortunately Chris was moving over to make room for me and her iphone slipped out of her pocket and right into the ocean. We checked with the Captain to see how deep the water was but he said “It’s not how deep it is, you'd never find it in this (murky) water.” It was about time to get a new phone anyways. That’s a good reminder to not bring a new phone on travels and upgrade afterwards. I always being a backup phone ever since I set mine down in its waterproof bag to go snorkeling in Tahiti and it floated off when some larger waves came in. That time I was lucky that Natalie had brought her old iphone in case she needed to get info from it.

Hector's Dolphins

3 dolphins swimming

2 dolphins swimming by

hole in the wall

on the dolphin cruise

cool rocks we passed

2 baby fur seals playing while waiting in the small pond

Next we drove around the other side of this bluff to see fur seal pups waiting for parents to come back with food. Most of them were waiting in little pools protected from the ocean. However one was on the other side and he was arfing at us like crazy and following the boat. So so cute! On the way back they served us wonderful homemade cookies, yum!

baby fur seal

baby fur seal

baby fur seal

baby fur seal

baby fur seal

small pic of baby fur seal

a fur seal posing

Audrey in the boat

giving out home made cookies on the dolphin cruise

the town of Akaroa

The dolphin tour lady recommended The Common for dinner. It was fabulous! We shared a bunch of dishes, which were: Larb, Teriyaki Salmon, a curry which was amazing, and one other dish which might have been pad thai. It was all great! Very good place for dinner.

great view leaving Akaroa

empty security line

Back at the motel I packed up for trip home. I tried to get uber for the 90 minute ride to the airport. No dice. The motel gave me the contact info for a local taxi guy but he wanted $150 for the drive so instead the gang took pity on me and we all went to the airport to drop me off, then they explored Christchurch for a bit before going home to Akaroa. Security was empty, getting through was a breeze. I was concerned that the airport lounge closed from 10:30-1:30 since my flight was at 1:15, but apparently they just close the food area and as long as you don’t get in the way of them cleaning, you can stay there. The place was also empty except for one other couple and the food was pretty good. It was a decent spread considering how low trafficked it is.

empty lounge at Christchurch airport

my meal at the lounge

the lounge at chaw

My flight was easier than the 14 hour one to Sydney though it was still long and I had trouble sleeping so only slept an hour or two. The United flight attendants gave me a nice fruit and cheese plate before landing as a thank you for the gift bags. I got in at 6am only to learn that Bart on Sunday doesn’t start from SFO until 7:45. WTF? I was supposed to Bart to El Cerrito by 8:15 then Linda was going to pick me up and take me to our soccer game at 9. Now I wouldn't make it. I texted Dawne on the off chance she was up and she was! She observes Ramadan by not eating or drinking from sun up to sundown to give moral support to her friends who do it. She’s a Lifesaver! She drove all the way out to SFO and brought me home to my cat.

It was so good to see Cosmo. He was mad at me for about 30 seconds meowing angrily to let me know i had screwed up, then he gave on and came for cuddles. I couldn't get home them turn around and leave him again, so I bought him to my game. He hung out amongst the trees and bushes then after the game I let him walk around for a good long while. Everyone else had left the field as we headed for the exit gate only to find it locked. Oh no! I was also quite jetlagged so my brain was fuzzy resulting in a pretty poor performance in goal (I think they scored about 5 goals on me).

Luckily the fence had space under it for Cosmo to get out but I would have to go over with both our backpacks. It was a huge fence. Probably only about 9 feet high but the older I get the taller fences look. I dragged over a garbage can to give me an extra foothold. Another problem with getting older is I now wear extra wide sneakers so getting toe holds is a challenge. I manage to get up balancing on the rim of the garbage can and drop the backpacks over. Then I hoist myself up and onto the top but as I'm going down the other side my bike shorts get caught on the wire at the top. I shift back up and move about to get myself unhooked. Now I'm unhooked but my foot is caught between the gate and the regular fence (I climbed the gate part as it had an extra bar for foothold across the middle). I can't get it unstuck! Right around now I'm thinking how perfect it would be to record all this but my phone is in my backpack on the ground while I'm perched on top of the fence. Cosmo is looking at me like I'm crazy which is pretty typical for him. I grab my shoe, remove my foot which allows me to get my shoe unstuck, then while holding onto the fence with one hand, I hold the shoe in my other hand and get it back on my foot. In the process I get my shorts stuck in now two places on the fence. I get those unhooked and ease down the other side, dropping the last 3-4 feet. I'm off balance so I fall backwards and roll so I don't hit my head but I do scrape my knee a bit. I'm pleased that I got through it all relatively unscathed. I unclip Cosmo's leash and he squeezes under the gate. It's definitely time to go home and sleep for several hours.