Christchurch and Akaroa - english version

First impressions of Christchurch

After one night in Kaikoura (close to Christchurch) and how life is playing, we met Chris again! After a few text messages, we decided to travel with him to Christchurch.

We arrived in Christchurch and drove directly to the Buskers Festival. There acted buskers and comedians and it was all for free or for a small donation! :) We just camped right next to the festival on the car park! :)

The earthquake happened already three years ago, but in the beginning of the night it looked so weird. It makes you think the earthquake happened just yesterday. The roads were closed, cranes, and half houses which are about to collapse and nobody on the streets! That’s just so creepy.

Christchurch

But there are two nice places you have to go, like the Hagley Park and the botanic gardens! 

Bines arrival in Christchurch

19th of January, 4.30 am and the alarm is ringing! “Today BINNNEEE is coming!!!” Bine arrived at 5.30 am at the airport. Fabio moved on the bed, Bine sat in the front and let´s go to Akaroa – our first stop! :)

For sure, not everything was fine.. :) A short notice what´s happened before we picked up Bine. :) You remember we camped at the car park of the festival. The gates were closed at 12am. The whole park is surrounded by fences, until this time, we didn´t think about this. We were trapped and that at 5 am!!! :) After a few meters with “Mario” (our car) on the footpath, we were lucky that we found a small exit to go out of there!!! Marleen kept calm; sometimes we know how her reaction is in situations like this! :D

Akaroa and „swimming“ with hector´s dolphins

We arrived at 7 am, really tired and totally unpowered in Akarao. After a two hour power nap we walked around Akaroa – France feeling in New Zealand! :) One highlight is to go for swim with the smallest dolphins in the world. For sure we wouldn´t miss this and booked the trip on the same day! :)

Akaroa walk

Akaroa

Akaroa habor

Bine, Marleen, Fabio and Chris

We had dinner and a lot of fun together with Chris. He followed us to Akaroa in the evening! :)

Fabios back was still bad therefore he had to cancel the dolphin swim. Bine and Marleen did this trip only by themeself! Two trips about 30 minutes in the freaking cold water and yet we didn´t have any success with the dolphins. They just didn´t want to swim with us. Hence we only watched them instead of swimming… we were so disappointment.. :( But than the bombshell happened. Bine had luck with the dolphins and one of them jumped right in her arms! :D

hector´s dolphin

Worth knowing about the hector´s dolphins:

At approximately 1.5 m in length, it is one of the smallest whales like creatures and he belongs to the family of the black-white-dolphins. They are only native to New Zealand's water.

The decision is made – a 2,5 weeks girls road trip

After three days in Akaroa and nothing changed with Fabios back, he decided to take care about himself and stay until our flight to Singapore in Christchurch go. Finally he had to get fit again; for all that we had still around six months left for south East Asia. Therefore the actually planned trip turned into a girls trip! :) 

LET´S GO!! :)