Not a Road Trip (MEANWHILE....)

Wednesday Jan 9

Team B Roll (as I am now calling them) left the hotel for the airport just as the A Team rolled out to Tekapo. Upon arrival in Christchurch at 11:00 AM, Marshall, Holly, and Mark went to the Antarctic Centre. They went for a ride in the Hägglund Explorer, pet a couple of cute huskies, saw some sweet penguins, and watched two 4D movies! The Hägglund Explorer is like an obstacle course over Antarctic terrain, and it was a blast (so they tell me). All of the penguins at the Antarctic Centre are rescues that cannot survive in the wild. One particular penguin had a little blue prosthetic foot.

In the afternoon, the gang made it to the hotel and immediately walked to dinner. They decided on Thai Orchid, but when they arrived, they were 20 minutes early. Luckily, the owner was there already and opened the place up for them, serving drinks until the cooks arrived.

Thursday Jan 10

Mark departed for his tour fairly early, and drove through the mountains to Mt. Potts High Country Station, the filming location for Edoras in Lord of the Rings. It featured nice landscapes and fun facts, and that’s all I really heard about it.

Pictured: Fiona's excellent photography. Not Pictured: Fiona

The rest of the B Roll went to Kaikoura via bus. Their bus driver, Fiona, was apparently the best bus driver in the entire world because when I finally met up with them after they returned, Fiona was the first person Marshall talked about. I asked about dolphins, he spoke about a bus driver. She was really great, though. She had really interesting information, not just about the contents of the tour but loads of information about New Zealand (she used to work for the government). She also took the group to cool little stops along the way that weren’t exactly part of the itinerary.

Once Fiona brought them into Kaikoura, they finally reached Marshall’s most anticipated event: swimming with dolphins! Everyone got some glimpses, but Marshall was the one everyone wanted to be. After many attempts at talking to them and singing to attract the animals, he found the one song that brought not one, not two, but FIVE dolphins to swim alongside him. That song, friends, is the theme song to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Everyone seemed to have a super time, and told us all about it over shawarma.

LATER THAT EVENING

Ladies night! We decided it was time to relax, crack open a bottle of wine, and pamper ourselves. Holly and I brought peel-off face masks and bubble masks, and we used tea bags provided by the hotel to de-puff our eyes. There's something about having an at-home (in New Zealand) spa night to bring out the giggles. I would highly recommend it.

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