We had quite a drive the next day from Lake Tekapo to Akaroa and the weather was awful. It kept pouring then stopping, then pouring then stopping… not fun. We were heading to Akaroa for one reason only, to see if we could find a Hector’s dolphin. The Hector’s dolphin is the World’s smallest (4ft) and rarest dolphin, with there predicted to only be 7000 left in the World, which is very sad.

Akaroa wasn’t on our radar at all until my friend Alex mentioned it to us after the road between Christchurch and Kaikoura was destroyed during the Earthquake. We had been looking forward to visiting Kaikoura for a long time as it’s seen as the marine animal centre of New Zealand. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible so we have another reason to return, not like we need another.

As we approached Akaroa we realised how pretty the area was. Akaroa sits on the Banks Peninsula just South of Christchurch and has a very French feel to it. Many of the roads are named in French and there are patisseries and bolangeries everywhere. We learnt later that this is because this was the home of French settlement in New Zealand and many of the residents now are descendants of their French ancestors. You can hear French being spoken often and French tourists visit here in the hundreds.

We had originally planned to hire kayaks to go out and explore the area for Hector’s dolphins, but the weather wasn’t really on our side so we splurged a little and boat a ticket on a 3 hour boat ride. This was the best decision we made! When we got on the boat we had a glass of wine each, they also served us a homemade cookie whilst on board, we had the best commentary and saw loads of marine animals. There was a dog on board (I can’t remember his name) who would stand near to where he heard the dolphins. Most of the time he was spot on.

Maori village on the banks.

We saw about 12 Hector’s dolphins during our tour as well as some white flippered penguins and one yellow eyed penguins. We also saw lots of Southern Fur Seals and cormorants. It was all in all a brilliant trip. The company was Akaora dolphins and it’s a little family run company.

Akaroa was brilliant and I definitely would spend more time on the Banks Peninsula when we come back to New Zealand. Don’t overlook it.

The next morning we drove to Christchurch, checked in to our accommodation and drove to drop Maverick back at the spaceships depot 😦 This was super sad. We had become very attached to Maverick over the 6.5 weeks that we’d had him. I have to be honest though, we were looking forward to a proper bed and a bathroom all to ourselves.

We didn’t do much for the rest of the day as we had a lovely little apartment so we watched some tv and did some research on the internet. Boring stuff really.

I had read about a Christmas Carol concert that was happening in Victoria Square (it was Christmas eve) so we headed there to watch that and it was amazing. On the way we couldn’t believe the devastation of Christchurch after the 2011 earthquakes (more on this later), so it was lovely to see the community of Christchurch coming together to celebrate Christmas.

The next day was Christmas morning and we had a lovely lie in, cooked a fry up and watched lots of Christmas movies. Nothing was really open on Christmas day so we decided to relax and not do a lot (very much needed). Before our Christmas dinner we went for a walk up to the 185 chairs memorial and to the cardboard cathedral. The earthquake in 2011 took 185 lives which included many Japanese over on a learn English program. This memorial uses one chair to represent each life that was lost and was very moving. We both spent some time talking about what kind of chair would represent ourselves and it was a lovely way to think about the people that were lost.

The main cathedral was severely damaged in the 2011 earthquakes and even more damaged in the aftershocks that have followed. After 5 years there has been no decision made about is fate with some people wanting it to be knocked down and rebuilt and others saying its an iconic building we need to restore it. As the cathedral was not useable they built a temporary cardboard cathedral a little bit further away which is made of many cardboard tubes. The windows are made of blown up images of the stain glass that was destroyed on the original church, which was a lovely touch. It’s a beautiful peace of architecture and I really hope they keep it after the original cathedral is rebuilt/restored.

We headed back to our apartment after a loop around the river Avon. The apartment had a communal kitchen we could use and made our Christmas dinner. Chicken, carrots, broccoli, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. I have invented the best new dish in the world – potato in the hole. As we didn’t have many pans I decided to cook the roast potatoes and when they were nearly done I surrounded them in Yorkshire pudding batter. The result was mindblowing if I don’t say so myself. I will be doing this far more often.

The rest of the day was for relaxing so we could get up early the next day for our free walking tour. You’re probably getting bored of me telling you about walking tours, but I honestly believe they are the best way to see a city. I was desperate to learn more about the earthquakes and felt that this would be the best way to go about it.

Our tour guide was a local, born and bred in Christchurch would have lived through the earthquake. He was a very animated fellow and a little scripted, but we’ll let him off. We walked all around the town, seeing the new buildings, the derelict buildings, the remaining heritage spots, the reStart mall and the river Avon.

Here are some examples of the derelict buildings we saw on our way around the town.

Christchurch has been referred to as the most British city outside of Britain and I completely see why. It’s just got the same feel about it. The community has obviously pulled together during a difficult time and new developments like the reStart mall prove how hard the city has been working to recover. The reStart mall is a mall made completely out of shipping containers. When the main shopping centre was destroyed this mall provided the community with the facilities they needed at short notice and cheaply. There is a bank, post office, restaurants and cafes all in the mall. There are rumours going around that the mall will be destroyed when the city is restored. I really hope not. These new developments are now so linked with Christchurch’s history that I hope they remain.

Regent street was the most well preserved street we saw during our time in Christchurch and it made us realise what this city may have been like in the past.

For the rest of the day we explored the Canterbury museum which was really brilliant. They had 2 amazing displays that we spent a lot of time in. The Air New Zealand exhibit and the Antarctica exhibit. In the Air New Zealand exhibit we got to experience virtual reality for the first time which was brilliant. They showed us what they hoped the future of air travel may be like with people being able to choose what they ‘see’ during the flight.

We met up with a friend of mine, Alex, from Penrice and had a lovely chat, coffee and Simon even got to have some sliders sent to him through a pneumatic post system. Very cool. It was great to catch up with Alex and hear about her life in New Zealand.

And with that our time in New Zealand was over. It had been wonderful. More than wonderful… MIND BLOWING. This country is amazing and everyone needs to visit at least once. We will be back, I have no doubt. I would love to see Christchurch in the future when it has recovered from all of the devastation. What I took from our time there was that the community spirit in that city is solid and caring. It won’t be long until Christchurch is prospering yet again.