Day 6 Akaroa

We surfaced around 7.30 and wandered down the road to the Bealey Hotel for an early full English, just to set us up for the day.  As we pick up the campervan tomorrow, it may be the last chance for an FE for a while.  It’s not the same when you have to cook it yourself, especially on a mini cooker.  Having polished off breakfast, we returned to the motel in order to leave the keys with management as he was going to move us up the road, whilst we disappeared off sightseeing.

We decided that we would take the shuttle to Akoroa, which is on the Banks Peninsular, about an hour and a quarter SE of Christchurch.  The route took us through Addington, which was a little strange, as for those who know my history, it was where I was born.  Addington in Surrey, that is.

Banks peninsular is essentially a place where a number of volcanoes erupted forming a huge crater, which in turn burst open into the sea forming a beautiful, natural harbour.  Some thousands or even millions of years later, a French sea captain came to Akaroa, but did not actually land ashore.  Instead he returned to France, loaded up with a shipload of immigrants and set sail again for New Zealand with the intention of colonising the area for France.  When he returned, he apparently stopped in Russell on the \north Island first.  This had already been claimed by the British, so he decided to sail onto Akaroa.  Unfortunately, someone let on to the Brits as to what his intention was, so they dispatched a warship at full speed to get to Akaroa first.  When the French ship arrived, they were greeted by the Union Flag flying and he couldn’t claim the S Island for the French.  Instead, they just settled in Akaroa, which has given the place its very French appearance and most of the street names are in French.

We decided to take the harbour cruise as it was such a stunning day.  As we cruised along, we were joined by dolphins which came right alongside the ship.  Just a little further and we saw the rare, white winged, little blue penguin, just flapping around in the water, then diving down for food.  As we left the shelter of the harbour and entered the Pacific Ocean, the sea had somewhat more of a swell running and we were sailing into it.  Most of us were at the front of the catamaran and every now and then we would hit a wave and it sprayed over the bows.  Those who were right at the front got very wet i.e. Maureen.

 

As we pulled into a small cove, the sea abated and we were rewarded with the view of seals basking on the rocks.  As the catamaran was fairly small, we were able to get up close to the rocks and see them swimming in the rock pools and the kelp along the edge of the rocks.  We also saw more little penguins swimming in the sea.  We then headed back to the shelter of the harbour.  Truly fantastic sights and the surrounding scenery was equally impressive as we were effectively sailing inside the crater of a huge volcano.

The sun continued to shine as we enjoyed an ice cream whilst waiting for the shuttle back to Christchurch.  The journey back was equally as interesting as the journey out, since the driver imparted a wealth of local knowledge in both directions.  We returned through the suburbs of Christchurch back into the city centre. 

From our walkabout yesterday and driving through the city today, it is quite apparent that this place is more like Oxford than Oxford is.  Apart from the fact that the river here is the Avon and the Avon doesn’t run through Oxford, you could quite easily believe that you were wandering through the spires of the Cotswold city.  The road names are English, the architecture is English, they drive on the left and the old University building is a dead ringer for any Oxford or Cambridge college.  It’s a fantastic, friendly city that is spookily like home.