Yesterday I also dug out some material that I had bought in Dunhelm Mill while at home with my sister to make in to a bag so I did along with a great pattern for a 'Simple Six-Pocket Bag' I got online on Pinterest I think from Better Homes and Gardens.
So back to our trip last weekend - that seems ages ago now.
We got to our destination of beautiful Akaroa (Maori for Long Harbour) on Sunday morning after the last 100 km or so leg from Timaru (we travelled just over 1,100 kms altogether on this mini break).
Akaroa is 75 kms south east of Christchurch and on the Pacific Coast, a beautiful harbour that was created many years ago when the two volcanos - one here and one at Littleton - blew their tops off literally. They created these great harbours from the craters which are so picture perfect on a good day.
It is an historic French and British settlement (we just beat them to it by two days apparently but let them settle in the area and keep all the French names for the streets etc which gives it a unique flavour in this country) with lots of colonial buildings, so pretty in this great setting. There are only 600 permanent residents here in the township, it can get pretty cut off in a bad winter according to the lady at the winery we visited and they thrive on the tourist industry so a lot of people have to commute to work in Christchurch in the winter, not something I would want to do every day. So 20% permanent resident housing stock and the 80% remaining are holiday homes! That's even worse than Queenstown!!
Luckily we had two good days here but when we left it was a little overcast, shame for folks seeing it for the first time.
It was so good to have the opportunity to stay here this time and explore the place in more detail. That is the nice thing about living in such a beautiful place, you just have time to do it justice.
There was a cruise ship in the harbour too, this is the view of it from Duvachelle which is a lovely bay on the way to Akaroa where there is a nice holiday camp.
We walked around the bay to the 'busier' end of town where there are more restaurants, gift shops etc and where the boats go from.
You can see the cruise ship better in this one, it was huge.
The streets are very narrow here yet the coaches were arriving all afternoon disgorging the cruise ship passengers back from their 'jaunt' on to the jetty to be taken back out by their what we presumed were their motorised life boats back to the ship. We must have seen over twenty of them.
We walked back along the bay in the evening sun very amused at one point by a man walking along eating fish and chips with at least ten seagulls flying very closely over his head. He got a real shock when he looked up. Derek has a photo of him and I forgot to ask for it.
Just to the right side of the little island in the middle of the photo must be a safe harbour as there were a lot of sail boats moored there.
Then we still had time to walk round town again before the boat trip so went over to the yacht club and lighthouse.
I do like lighthouses. We couldn't get in this one today though which is a shame, it is only open on Sundays so should have gone the day before really, never mind. It was still just as pretty from the outside. We also passed a wall of flowers on the way which was full of Monarch butterflies - the first we have seen so far this year. What lovely little creatures they are! |
The main reason people go out on these trips is to see the rare Hectors Dolphins which only grow to just over a metre long and are very friendly as are most dolphins. They seem to stay in the bay for the most part and we were so pleased to see so many of them. I got more luck with 'picturing' them on my video camera but did get a few random shots of them this one below being about the best.
This was our view waking up.
So for our trip home our first stage wasn't that long. I wanted to visit the Maori and Arts place at Little River so we had a coffee there too. It is on Lake Ellesmere which is a big lake on the Banks peninsula and part of the cycling rail trail from Christchurch. They also have some fascinating accommodation there called the Silo Stay which look intreguing. At $170 a night we won't be staying there!
I just have to show you my rock melon though!!!! I have never grown one before. Some of the veggies are doing well and other not, the tomatoes are a bit iffy this year, not a patch on last year but the sweet peppers are the best I have had and I have aubergines, well nearly as they have not finished growing yet but I have two melons!! It is about the size of a tennis ball so far. And it is the one with the orange flesh inside.