When we were on the Speight's tour, we met some fellow Americans from DC. A few days earlier, they had taken boat out from Kaikoura to swim with the wild dolphins. Laura was excited about the possibility, so she and Jack drove back south from Blenheim to Kaikoura to give it a shot.
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| Clever seagull on a post photo |
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| Seals in the carpark |
Steven and I remained in Blenheim to take in the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. The centre is a museum funded by Peter Jackson to display his collection of restored and re-manufactured WWI aircraft. Steven and I went almost as an afterthought, but it is really a great museum. Jackson owns many artifacts from the era including some from the Arizona Balloon Buster, Frank Luke and Eddie Rickenbacker. Besides the typical airplane and interpretive plaque, Jackson's team has constructed several dioramas showing the aircraft in action. I get the feeling that Jackson built models as a kid.
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| Fake Stuka |
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| Note the different scales of the models |
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| Not a particularly comfortable cockpit |
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| Realism is important to Jackson |
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| Rickenbacker's flight suit |
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| Story of Grid's escape |
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| Grid about to jump |
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| Another great diorama |
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| Max Immelmann letter |
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| Insignia from von Richtofen's Fokker |
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| Depiction of von Richtofen's crash |
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| Peter Jackson's model airplane line |
Meanwhile in Kaikoura, Laura and Jack didn't make it into the boat. The first trip of the morning met with rough seas and no dolphins, so the company canceled Laura's trip. So much the better. She was up most of the night worrying about the cold water. On the way home, they were able to see some seals up close at a roadside park.
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