A sunny and warm day was promised and after a cool start so it proved. Firstly the LLW had some work to do so we stayed at the camp site for a while and the portable IT department was called upon to sort out a couple of glitches. However, all was eventually sorted and the work was completed within the forecast time.
We drove down to the large car park at harbour level and took the bikes for their last ride; yes tomorrow we must drop the bikes off at the Christchurch depot before we head south to Central Otago. It has been brilliant having the bikes and we have used them at every location with memorable rides such as Whangarei, Russell, 90 Mile beach, Rotorua, Hanmer Forest and Little River. But dear reader, do not despair; there are plans to hire bikes in Wanaka and indeed to ride some of the Central Otago Trail.
The fairly short ride inevitably finished at our favourite coffee shop in Akaroa and we enjoyed the usual beverages before cycling back to the camper van to get ready for our sailing trip on Fox II. The gaff rigged ketch was a little late but this was no problem and we were soon on our way with about 20 other passengers.
As you can see from the photos above Fox II is a very handsome ketch and sailed very well. We saw lots of Hectors Dolphins (the smallest dolphins in the world and one of the rarest) but they were much quicker that I was so please excuse the poor photos.
There were seals, albatrosses. petrels, cormorants galore and even a lone little blue penguin having a rest on the sea just in front of us. Just a very nice trip and good value as we were out for 3 hours. Perhaps the real highlight was being on this this lovely historic sailing boat in full sail outside of the harbour in the vast Pacific Ocean.
Back then to the camper van and the camp site where we did some packing so that there would not be too much of a rush on Tuesday morning after out long drive tomorrow. We need to drive back to Christchurch (about 1 1/2 hours) drop of the bikes and then drive south as close to Queenstown as we can manage but stopping off at the wonderful lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki. The weather is set fair so may get as far as Cromwell; we shall see.
In the meantime a quick shower and then dinner (as usual wonderfully presented by the LLW and accompanied by the odd splash of NZ red wine) outside the camper van with the most awesome views across Akaroa Harbour, in brilliant sunshine and very warm temperatures. Dinner al fresco does not get much better than this
As you can see, after dinner the LLW was enjoying reading The Telegraph on her iPad outside the camper van
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