Akoroa

Yesterday I went to the seaside town of Akoroa with my cousin Anita. This tiny town on the south end of the Banks Peninsula, was originally settled by french whalers. The Captain of the whaling fleet had wanted to claim NZ fr the french so decided to go back to France to find some settlers. By the time he got back, damn, those pesky Brits had already planted their flag so to speak , and NZ belonged to the British Empire.
Akoroa Bay is home to Hector Dolphins, the smallest dolphins in the world. Only about 7,000.00 are around. They are slow breeders- with only 1 calf born every 3 - 4 years . There are also blue penguins, which are again very small penguins and exclusive to the Akoroa Bay area. Wasn't able to photograph them as they are amazingly fast little creatures, but saw about 30 in total. The town is very quaint with many lovely little cottages in tact from the original settlement.

Sheep Story of the day : If you look very closely at the back of the cave is a sheep. Yes, he is totally alive. Apparently he has been stuck in the cave for about a week while the locals assess rescue strategies as it is sheer rock face with the only access being from the water. A case of extreme graving gone wrong.