Wednesday 16th February. Christchurch.

View from Hilltop to Akaroa.

Sculpture of artist.

The Harbour

We had booked a trip to Akaroa today which is a pretty little town on the Banks peninsula.The coach picked us up at the motel and Stan, the driver, had several other pick ups to do before picking up the bulk of the passengers in Cathedral Square. Sadly, for Stan  it didn't go to plan as the traffic was bad and every traffic light seemed to be against him. Also there are many deviations in the town centre due to the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks that Christchurch has suffered over the past few months. He was almost a half hour late getting into Cathedral Square and obviously quite worried about his late arrival. As we had been first on the coach we had the best seats at the front with a very good view. The adjacent seats were occupied by a very garrulous chap and his wife from |Bridgewater, I tried to be as polite as I could be with him without encouraging him too much as it was obvious that once he started he would go on for ever! . We finally got on the way and had a pleasant drive of 84 kms and stunning scenery to Akaroa with a toilet stop at Little River and another at Hilltop which gives an amazing view of Akaroa and it's harbour. The village of Akaroa is set alongside the harbour which is created from a volcanic crater. It is a very popular tourist spot and a place where one can swim with the dolphins.
James Cook sighted the peninsula in 1770. Thinking it was an island he named it after the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks. The Ngai Tahu tribe, who occupied the peninsula at the time, were attacked at the fortified Onawe pa (Maori village) by the Ngati Toa chief Te Rauparaha in 1831 and their population was dramatically reduced.
In 1838 whaling captain Jean Langlois negotiated the purchase of Banks Peninsula from local Maori and returned to France to form a trading company. With French-government backing, 63 settlers headed for the peninsula in 1840. But only days before they arrived, panicked British officials sent their own warship to raise the flag at Akaroa, claiming British sovereignty under the Treaty of Waitangi. Had the settlers arrived two years earlier, the entire South Island could have become a French colony, and NZ’s future may have been quite different.
The French did settle at Akaroa, but in 1849 their land claim was sold to the New Zealand Company and in 1850 a large group of British settlers arrived. The heavily forested land was cleared and soon farming became the peninsula’s main industry.
Because of the early French influence parts of the village still retain a French atmosphere and this has become one of the village's attractions. After a walk along the beach from where the bus had dropped us we were at the harbour where we settled for a fish and chip lunch. Nothing fancy, order the meal and then pick it up wrapped in paper and sit at one of the many tables to eat it. It was certainly very good. We then strolled along to the lighthouse before going back to the harbour  and drinking a beer at one of the many pavement cafes and watching the world go by before it was time to pick up the coach for the journey back to Christchurch.
We got back to Christchurch at 6pm and we were dropped off at the coach depot which was just around the corner from our motel. After doing most of the packing in readiness for our departure the next day we walked down to the mall in Riccarton for a meal before returning for our last night at the Riccarton Village Inn.