I woke up at 4:45am and grabbed the few belongings I bothered to bring inside and headed out to my car. This morning I had booked an excursion to go out into the Pacific and swim with wild dolphins, and I had to be at the store at 5:20am. Upon arrival, I checked in and sat down at a table in the cafe area. After about ten minutes of waiting, one of the guides, Simon, came over and invited a portion of those who signed up to swim to head back into the gear room and get fitted for wet suits and other snorkeling gear. We were all given two-piece wet suits (I think they were 7mm but could have been 9mm) with hoods, masks, snorkels, and fins. I had also brought my GoPro along. After trying on the gear to make sure it fit, we stayed in our wetsuits and headed to the auditorium, where they played beautiful footage of albatrosses and dolphins in the nearby waters. Once everyone was ready, they played a video explaining how the dolphin encounter would work. We would be swimming with wild dolphins, and the dolphins are naturally curious so we may attract their attention, but they aren't trained so they won't stick around if they don't want to.

After the briefing we headed out to a bus that drove us about ten minutes to a dock. We were split up into two groups to board two separate boats. My group was assigned to the Moana Nui. We got on board and set off just as the sun was rising.

As we sailed, Simon and Tracy (another guide) provided a wealth of information on the local geography and the dusky dolphin. New Zealand is located right between the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, which is why it is prone to earthquakes, and one of these fault lines passes through Kaikoura (this led to a particularly violent earthquake in 2016). The sea floor off the shore of Kaikoura descends incredibly steeply because it is part of the Hikurangi Trench. The submarine canyon drops rapidly to over 1000m deep not too far from the coast. The dusky dolphin can only dive to around 200m deep (they are mammals so need to come to the surface to breathe). They are carnivorous, and the fish they eat descends deep into the canyon during the day, and rises at night, so the dolphins hunt fish during the night, and come back to the shore where the water is only around 30m deep during the day.

After 30-45 minutes of sailing we found a large pod of dusky dolphins, so we all headed to the back of the boat to prepare to swim. Once it was time, the captain sounded a horn, which was our signal to swim out towards the dolphins. There were hundreds of dolphins in the pod and they all swam towards us. Some just swam really fast past us, while others saw us and swam in circles around us out of curiosity. I found the best way to continue to attract their attention was to swim in a circle in place while the dolphin swam circles around me, and continue to make eye contact with it. For some dolphins, this trick kept them around for around thirty seconds. Other swimmers tried to attract dolphins by making loud noises, but I don't think this worked very well. I think trying to dive deep may have piqued their interest, but I was too buoyant in the wetsuit to do this effectively.

We repeated this procedure three more times and were in the water swimming with dolphins for a total of around 30 minutes. Swimming with dolphins was a surreal experience. They are such amazingly efficient swimmers and it is really cool to be able to observe wild dolphins so close. It is also amazing to see so many large pods of them, both while in the water and from the vantage point of the boat.

After a while, it was time to head back to Kaikoura. While still in the vicinity of a large pod of dolphins, we stood at the bow of the ship and admired their swimming. The dusky dolphin is particularly known for acrobatically leaping and somersaulting out of the water, so they were particularly cool to see (but frustratingly difficult to photograph).

We returned to the shore and took a bus back to the shop, where I was able to shower and change into dry clothes. I drove back to the hostel to drop off my key, and then set out to explore Kaikoura for the next couple of hours. I parked in the charming downtown area (my first time parallel parking a right-hand driving car) and went to BeeBox, a honey store, for some iced coffee with fresh honey in it, which was quite tasty. I spent a few minutes walking around the area, before heading further down the peninsula.

The end of the Kaikoura peninsula is known for having a large colony of fur seals. There is a parking lot at the end of the peninsula, and since it was low tide, I was able to walk from there on the rocks that would have been submerged during high tide to see if I could spot any seals sunning. After about ten minutes walk, I came to an area that was blocked off by a rope, but the rope just ended at a certain point, and I continued in that direction around the rope until I was only about 20 meters away from a seal pup. A local who was out spotted me and informed me that I wasn't permitted in that area since there were so many young seal pups (most of them only 2-3 weeks old), and told me I should go to the opposite side of the rocky bed, that there were "shitloads" over there. I walked another ten minutes in the direction he had indicated, but only spotted a handful of seals, not a "shitload."

After exploring the tip of the peninsula and spotting a fair number of seals I headed back to my car and drove off in the direction of Christchurch. Google Maps said it would take about 2h 15m to get there, but I had a fair amount of detours planned. I stopped to get coffee after about an hour, and stopped to grab some food after another 45 minutes. New Zealand has lots of "dairies" (convenience stores) and "takeaways" (stores selling to-go food), (but from what I can tell, many dairies are also takeaways), and one very common thing they sell is fish and chips. I ordered a blue cod and a half scoop of chips. For tomato sauce (kiwi for ketchup) I had to pay extra. They asked me if I wanted "chicken salt or normal salt for the chips" and I didn't understand what they were asking so I said normal salt, but next time I will try the chicken salt. My food was given wrapped in some paper and piping hot, so instead of eating it I brought it to the car and continued driving.

I stopped in a town called Kaiapoi, about 15 minutes outside of Christchurch, to go to a laundromat and wash my clothes, and I ate the fish and chips while I waited for my clothes to wash. To use the laundromat I had to pay NZ$1 for a rechargeable card, but this laundromat has locations across the country so I can use the card again.

With nice clean clothes, I finally headed to central Christchurch where my hostel, Urbanz, was located. I snagged a parking spot right in front of the main entrance and headed inside to check in. The signage said this was 10-minute parking, but after check-in the man at the front desk told me that this wouldn't be enforced until 9am the following morning since it was Sunday, which was perfect for me. I was a little concerned about leaving my car in some distant area, because there have been reports of lots of car break-ins and theft in Christchurch. Evidently New Zealand imports many cars from Japan, and since Japan is so safe, these cars don't always have security systems (I don't think my rental car has an alarm). This makes them prime targets for theft or break-ins. I brought all my valuables, a change of clothes, and the toiletries I'd need for the night inside, but left the rest of my things in the trunk, which has a cover so the items can't be seen from the outside.

It was already almost 6pm, and most attractions in Christchurch were closed. I decided I would go to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, but before I left I wanted to copy the dolphin swim videos from my GoPro to my laptop. When I put my micro-sd card into my dongle, it somehow got completely stuck and I struggled for ten minutes to remove it. Eventually I went to the front desk to see if they had a paper clip (which they did) which was small enough to fit into the slot next to the sd card (which it was). I wasn't able to dislodge the card, but the woman helping me was able to pick it out, saving me the heartbreak of losing some cool dolphin footage from the morning.

I copied the videos off the card and headed out to go to the Botanic Gardens. I didn't want to drive and lose my awesome parking spot, so I decided to take an e-scooter. In Christchurch there are two e-scooter providers, Lime and Neuron, and it seemed like Neuron has more scooters, so I downloaded their app and got going. On the way to the Botanic Gardens, I stopped to do a little sight-seeing. First I saw New Regent Street, a cool block of shops with fun architecture, conveniently located right behind my hostel. Next I saw the Christchurch Cathedral in Cathedral Square. The cathedral was destroyed by a 2011 earthquake, and is currently being rebuilt.

After a few minutes ride, I made it to the botanic gardens and walked around for about an hour. The gardens are very peaceful and nice to walk around in. There are two rose gardens, and I found the central rose garden in particular to be impressive.

I walked out of the garden and headed in search of food. It was the Lunar New Year, so I thought it would be fun to eat dumplings (especially after Christine sent me photos of her and her friends making some). I headed across town to Pot Sticker Dumpling Bar, stopping along the way to admire some street art, and a large dragon that had been placed in the Avon River to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

I arrived at the restaurant around 8:15pm and they closed at 9pm, so there weren't many customers in. I ordered the special of the day, a pork, spinach, ginger, and garlic dumpling, and some xiao long bao. To drink, I ordered a Beijing Shandy, which is made with Asahi and Ginger Beer. The drink was very good, although someone should probably tell them that Asahi is a Japanese beer - they might want to rename the drink to the Tokyo Shandy. The dumplings were okay, but I thought the wrapper was way too thick. The xiao long bao did have a very good quantity of soup.

I headed back in the direction of the hostel. It was after 9pm and the sun was still up, which felt a bit strange to me, probably because I woke up so early. Along the way I stopped to see the Cardboard Cathedral, a temporary structure built out of paper and cardboard while the main cathedral is still being rebuilt. And of course I admired more street art, it seems that there is tons of art everywhere in Christchurch. Before bed, I headed back to New Regent Street to get some ice cream from Rollickin Gelato. I opted for the "hokey pokey tokey" flavor, which was vanilla with bits of chocolate and honeycomb. It hit the spot, and was a good way to end a very long day.