Akaroa was great. Sailing on the Fox II was a lot of fun, especially since dolphins swam alongside the boat for at least 1 of the 3 hours we were out on the water. We also saw quite a few seals that live in a seal colony on the opposite side of the bay from Akaroa, and there was the occasional albatross that swooped past our boat as well.

The dolphins that live in the bays of the Banks Peninsula are Hector’s dolphins, which are the rarest species of dolphin in the world and only live in the Akaroa area. They have really distinctive markings and seemed to be quite small for dolphins, but they were no less playful! And to answer Poppa’s question, according to Wikipedia, the Hector’s dolphin is named after “Hector’s dolphin was named after Sir James Hector (1834-1907). He was the curator of the Colonial Museum in Wellington (now the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa). He examined the first specimen found of the dolphin.”

As I only have 7 minutes remaining before this computer boots me off the internet, I’ll talk more about Akaroa another time. Today I took a couple bus rides and am now sitting in Kaikoura, which is home to a huge array of wildlife. All of the tours that leave from here focus on one of three animals–the dusky dolphins, the whales, or the seals. I am doing a sunrise dolphin swim (which means I have to be at the Dolphin Encounter centre at 5.20am–ack!) tomorrow, and I’m really excited. Unfortunately, my roommate at the hostel went out on a dolphin swim today and said that only 5 people got in the water because it was so rough, and that everyone (including the swimmers) got seasick. So, it looks like I’ll be swimming and then huddling over a bucket for the rest of the trip, but it’ll still be worth it. Hey, I got seasick last time and it was still one of the highlights of my trip! I can also hope that the storm clouds, which were thoroughly covering the mountains when I arrived earlier in the afternoon, will go away and stop churning up the seas. They look really ethereal right now, with bits of mountains sticking out of the thick coat of mist surrounding them.

Now I have to go get all of my stuff for the morning ready and make sure I have plenty of seasick pills. Cross your fingers that we go out and the seas magically calm down!