debbie took a break from the meeting one day (none of the talks were interesting). and we took a day trip to the city of Akoroa, about 1.5 hrs from Christchurch. Akoroa is Maori for "long inlet" or something. it is popular for whale and dolphin watching, but we weren't sure how much finn would appreciate a real boat ride, so we played on the beach, did a little hike, and played around in the town.

the first four pictures were taken from scenic spots on the drive to the town:

notice the sheep? we would see more. (though curiously, we saw about as many cows as sheep. finn was a big fan of seeing cows. though sometimes it was difficult to tell if he was saying moo or more (as in more cows) when we would pass them. his more sounds like 'muh'.)

above is in the actual town. i probably took this from one of the rock strewn beaches:


we came back to this dock several hours later and it was completely submerged: