Easter holiday trip day four

On Sunday morning it rained again, but while we drove to Kaikura, the weather changed and we could almost see the sunrise, loomed in the distance. The routes on the East cost are pretty good and before we arrived in Kaikura, we’d seen a big, lazy fur seal colony. Some lay on the rocks and others played or fought and I could unwind while watching them. At nine we arrived in Kaikura and booked our cruise to see some whales. We knew already that the next trip starts at half past nine and we were good luck to catch one of the last tickets.

Of course we saw a whale, but this one was really boring and not interested to show some tricks. Instead he (there are no female whales here – too cold) did twenty minutes the same thing: breathing, showing some part of his back and his nose. Finally he dove under and showed us he’s lovely tail. Unfortunately we didn’t found any other whales and ran out of time, after two hours on the sea. Before we reached the harbour, we found a big swarm of dolphins. They were awesome! Some showed us their jumping skills, other how they could interact with our boat and other ones their synchronous swim style. They definitely saved our day!
We stayed in town and shared an ocean platter with crayfish. It was a bit small for four people, but enough to forget our hunger.

We left Kaikura very late, after half past two and we still had a long we to our destination “Akaroa”, a French settlement. Some kilometres before Christchurch we had driven the first time on a motorway, but that didn’t matter, because on almost all routes you can drive up to 100km/h. More important was that we missed the route which goes around Christchurch and we drove in the centre of this city! Some roads were still closed and we saw some ruins of buildings. We also learned that’s not a good idea to look for cover in a church, they all were heavily damaged!
Finally we found a way out and were back on our route to Akaroa. Unfortunately we lost some time and arrived at seven.

We didn’t book for an accommodation, because there were five backpackers. That was a failure: The backpackers in town were full and in all only three beds left. But there were still some outside of the town. We drove fifteen minutes on a tiny road and were led by some signs to the hostel but we didn’t reach it. We were forced to stop in front of a gate with the sign on it “This track and the hostels are closed for the winter” – dam! In addition the light for petrol popped up and we drove directly back to town. We found another hostel, which wasn’t in our guide, but it was also full. But fortunately, the woman there recommended us a cheap hotel in town in which we finally stayed. We were still in time to ate dinner at the hotel, which is normally only between six and eight. However, the rooms were quiet small but still cheap for 25 bucks each. Anna asked when the petrol station in this street would open tomorrow and the barkeeper wasn’t sure. “Normally at seven o’clock. But tomorrow is ANZAC day, (to remember the fallen soldiers) and I can’t open until one pm. So maybe the patrol station would also be closed, that’s the law”, he replied. We were flabbergasted, because we had to be back in Queenstown at five pm, to bring the car back, and we’ll need six to seven hours driving!