Akaroa

On Tuesday March 2nd, we ventured out of Christchurch to visit the French settlement town of Akaroa. Established in 1840, Akaroa is home to around a thousand people and numerous holiday homes due to its popularity as a holiday destination by Kiwis and foreigners alike.  It is located on a lovely bay in the Banks Peninsula. The original settlement represents the French attempt to settle in New Zealand after the British had found it but not developed settlements here. Of course once the Brits got wind that the French were making their attempt they promptly reaffirmed their control over the islands, but the French having come so far decided to stay anyways. This and much more was learned on our way to Akaroa during the shuttle drive up a very winding twisting road through the high rolling hills of the Banks Peninsula.  The ride was something else, but the views were spectacular.
Once we arrived in Akaroa we boarded a catamaran called the Black Cat for a two hour harbor nature cruise to explore the wonderful wildlife and scenery of this secluded bay.  This harbor is actually the crater of an extinct volcano. The Banks Peninsula was originally a volcanic island but over time the Pacific broke through one of the crater sides to fill the crater basin with shallow ocean water creating a very beautiful harbor.  When the first settlers came the hillsides of the harbor were covered in dense forest but the English quickly harvested much of the timber not realizing New Zealand trees take much longer to grow then for example North American trees, so much of the hill sides lack trees but some are coming back due to conservation efforts.  There is a strong focus on nature conservation in the area with a large portion of it focused on the world’s smallest and rarest dolphins, Hector’s, which we hoped to see on our cruise.  Luck was with us as we not only saw the Hector’s Dolphins, we saw dozens of them. There are only about a thousand in existence and our ship captain said they generally only see groups of two or three on a cruise, but it seemed that we had stumbled on their social time where many of the small groups gather to play and socialize. They swam all around the boat around us for some time as we cruised slowly through the harbor which was really great to see.  We also saw Cormorants, a type of water bird also called Shags in New Zealand, sunning themselves on the rocky cliffs. New Zealand has numerous types of birds, many flightless and water orientated.  A little blue penguin also popped up briefly to say hi to the boat, but wouldn’t stay surfaced long enough to have its picture taken.  We had another brief encounter with a fur seal that was playing along the seaweed covered coast, rolling in and out of the sea weed. While the seal blended in well with his surroundings, making picture taking rather difficult, we did get to watch it playing and rubbing its whiskers quite a bit. Yes, they are as cute as reputed.  Overall the cruise was well worth the trip to Akaroa and a wonderful experience.
After the cruise we had several hours to wander around Akaroa itself before our bus back to the city. The age of this tiny settlement shows in its older buildings and charm. Along with having become a popular place for tourists, Akaroa also has attracted many artists to call its quiet beautiful harbor home so there were many galleries and creative shops down the town’s main road. The shoreline was also very good for searching for sea shells and I found several of different shapes and variety then the ones available at our beach in New Brighton. I hope at some point to get lucky and come across a Paua shell as I was lucky enough in the Caribbean to find a conch but haven’t had luck yet. It’s very possible I won’t since the locals know the commercial value of these beautiful shells and therefore harvest them regularly for making jewelry and souvenirs for tourists. We had a great and very enjoyable day, took many pictures, and would definitely visit lovely Akaroa again.


I am only putting up a few pics though due to our limited internet access. Sorry :(