Akaroa

This past weekend was the first weekend I have had that didn't leave me exhausted for the upcoming week.  I went to a town called Akaroa with one of my flat mates and another girl from CSU. Akaroa was the only French settlement in New Zealand as the rest was claimed by the British. There is still lots of French influence in the city from the style of buildings to the street names. Akaroa is a town thats further south than Christchurch and along the ocean. It was a beautiful place with rolling hills leading to multiple peninsulas and the ports. It is a well known town for dolphin sightings. They have a smaller kind of dolphin than the bottle nose and we may have seen one while standing at the end of the dock; they are known to come in pretty close to the shore. Its movement was like a dolphin but we weren't able to see the whole thing so we were uncertain (lets just say that it was one to add to the experience). The original plan was to go ocean kayaking but we decided to save some money and avoid the cold and just explore the small port town. It was a very nice town with tons of souvenir shops. I was able to get some gifts for family members, postcards, and a few items for myself as well. We went to almost every shop, explored the coast, and went through the entire town. It only took about 45 mins to walk from one end to the other. We went to a nice cafe and I got a pie; which was delicious, and relaxed for the rest of the day until our shuttle came to pick us up. I had some amazing NZ fudge made in Akaroa as well.