Today turned out to be a bit of a momentous day for Sam and I. Our plan for the day was to head out of Lyttelton on a wildlife cruise in the morning before heading into Christchurch in the afternoon to check things out. Unfortunately though, while we were out in Lyttelton Harbour checking out the Hector Dolphins a decent sized earthquake struck Christchurch, well actually it was technically an aftershock from an earlier earthquake that had rocked the city in September 2010. Our little 4.9 earthquake became known as the Boxing Day aftershock and knocked out the power as well as causing damage to more than 20 buildings. Tragically for Christchurch and her residents just over a year later in 2011 another big earthquake almost destroyed the city and resulted in 185 deaths.
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There were a few reminders of the big earthquake that rocked Christchurch a few months ago. | Christchurch is on the other side of these hills. |
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Our day started off fairly uneventfully though as Sam and I jumped on a boat and headed away from the Lyttelton Wharf to check out Lyttelton Harbour. The main attraction here was that we hopefully would have a chance to spot some of the rare Hector Dolphins that live in the area. Initially at least we didn't have a lot of luck with our dolphin mates as they played a bit coy with us. While the dolphins were not showing themselves this morning the beautiful scenery more than made up for it I think. Lyttelton Harbour is cut into the large Banks Peninsula (the even more beautiful Akaroa Harbour is on the other side of the peninsula) and the golden tussock topped cliffs look particularly nice.
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Sam's settled in for the day. | The Banks Peninsula. |
 | There were a lot of waterbirds around.
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After checking out some Cormorants we slowly started our return journey back to the wharf and that's when our day took a turn for the better as we were joined by some playful dolphins. These Hector Dolphins are very small members of the dolphin family, the bigger females only growing up to 1.4 metres in size. What they lack in size though they make up for with playfulness though, they seem to love surfing on wakes.
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Banks Peninsula
 | The Banks Peninsula - it looks like there is a freshwater spring seeping out of the cliffs.
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 | Hector Dolphin |
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Hector Dolphin |
After our notable wildlife encounter we continued heading back towards the wharf however instead of returning to the ship we visited the nearby Ripapa Island to check things out. Ripapa Island was originally the site of a Mãori pã. A pã is a Mãori fortification and this particular site was occupied back in the early 1800's and up until 1832. After some internal Mãori wars the pã was abandoned. The island then hosted a quarantine station in the late 1800's until World War 1 rolled around and Fort Jervis was built to protect the harbour. Nowadays there are still some gun emplacements and fortifications to check out on the small island and it was an interesting spot to check out.
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Ripapa Island
 | Ripapa Island - this is some prized real estate. |
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It was as we were leaving Ripapa Island that we received the news of the Christchurch earthquake. Everyone was ordered to return back to the ship for safety reasons. I couldn't help but spare a thought for the people working on the boat, these people obviously had loved ones back in Christchurch and with information filtering through it was obvious how concerned that they were. A holiday and a wildlife cruise suddenly seeming a very trivial pursuit.
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Ripapa Island | Looking back towards Lyttelton Harbour. |
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The Dirt.
We visited Lyttelton on a Princess Cruise on this visit, this was actually our first cruise with Princess and it obviously left an impression on us as we've done quite a few more over the years. The wildlife tour was with a company called Black Cat who appear to be still operating and running tours around the Banks Peninsula area.
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Did the Banks Peninsula walk a few years ago, and it was very enjoyable. It was quite different from a lot of walks because it was set up by the local landowners who supply the accommodation. Some of the stops have food and drink available for a price, so that at one spot you can have steak with a Shiraz.
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