We did manage to sneak away for the day to Akaroa, about an hour's drive from Christchurch.
Akaroa is the place where the French originally colonized New Zealand only to find out the English had beat them to the punch.
Now it is a little fishing & village with a strong tourist trade including whale & dolphin watching operators.
With a baby in tow, there would be no whale watching for us so the only wildlife watching was the gulls including the large Black Winged Gulls (below).
And the cheeky red beaked gulls.
