One Last Push

After swimming with dolphins, we meandered around Akarora for a while. Akarora is on a peninsula southeast of Christchurch, the largest city on the south island, and is only 85 km away. The town had the feel of an upscale weekend retreat for city folk and tourists with lots of spare cash. There were lots of galleries and overpriced goods, most playing on a French theme as Akarora's first white settlers were from France. We had lunch at Akarora Fish and Chips, which is reputed to be the best fish and chips joint in the region. It was delicious indeed.

In the afternoon, we started on another long driving day. We planned to stop in Kaikoura, about five hours from Akarora, but we pushed through to Picton so we could cram some adventures into our last couple of days. It is about nine hours from Wellington to Auckland and a three hour ferry ride from Picton to Wellington. We need to be in Auckland on Monday night and thought we'd play around on the south island until Sunday and then drive like crazy on Monday. However, I've been waffling about going to Waitomo Caves, which will add two hours to our drive to Auckland and appears to be incredibly touristy, and Hart mentioned that he'd really like to try zorbing (rolling down a hill in a human-sized hamster ball with water in it). We've decided to do both these things and do a lot of extra driving because, hell, we're in freaking New Zealand!

Currently, we're on the high-speed ferry from Picton to Wellington. We'll stop in Wellington to post this, buy a couple of gifts at the museum and eat lunch, then we'll start the six-hour drive to Rotorua for zorbing on Sunday. Monday we'll go to Waitomo Caves and Tuesday we'll fly to Honolulu. You may not hear from us until we get settled in Maui, which will be on Tuesday or Wednesday, but we'll have a lot to report then.