Hi Everyone
This morning awoke to the magnificent view from our camper van over the Akaroa harbour above the town itself. Its name means long harbour in Maori and is the site of the first French settlement. The peninsula was formed by three volcanic eruptions and looks from above like a giant cogwheel. We spent the morning wandering around the pretty town itself which in true french style is very chic and had the most sublime bakery, where we lunched on some truly melt in your mouth pies. We then climbed into the camper van and took the tourist drive around the summit road which covers the highest points of the area and each winding turn gave you tantalizing glimpses of other bays with magical Gaelic names such as Le Bons bay, Stony bay or Okains bay! I have to say that originally we only picked this spot as a potential meeting spot with Andy and Charlotte prior to them coming to Kaikoura, but we were both glad we still went as the scenery was something akin to Scotland meets the Swiss Alps! All the water was a translucent pale blue and the rocks around the bay were rippled with iron oxides and layers of black volcanic lava which contrasted so beautifully. It seemed only fit that our last stop was to walk the majestic Onawe Pa a spit which dominates the middle of the huge harbour. This was the site of the Ngai Tahu tribe who occupied the area at the time the first settlers arrived.
Sadly we had to take the road back towards Christchurch as there is still so much to see and headed towards South Brighton, where we are now parked in a campsite on the edge of a beautiful estuary. South Brighton appears from our sundown walk to be a bit of an arty suburb of the city with lots of sculpture houses and homes with galleries attached dotted in quite a few places.
Tomorrow we are off into Christchurch
Night everyone
Hugs
Sara
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