Most New Zealanders hate France and the French like nothing on earth (think Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior and froggie bombers) so it’s a bit disconcerting to find ourselves in Akaroa, a little east-coast town near Christchurch that’s as French as they come.Famous for its French history and cuisine, it’s also a fantastic place to see the smallest and one of the rarest dolphins in the world, the Hector’s dolphin, and since this is our final stop in NZ, it’s now or never. (I’m trying to impress upon the girls that it’s far better to see even one in the wild than a zillion in a tank - I just don’t do animals in cages – and so we find ourselves on this little boat having forked out 92 bucks to see the grand total of … ONE dolphin. Still, the girls love it, and that’s cool.)
So after months on the road, it's time to bid farewell to New Zealand - it's been bloody wonderful - and say hello Australia! It'll be nice to stop for a while ...
