About 100km east of Christchurch is Banks Peninsula, which are beautiful hills formed by two giant volcanic eruptions. Captain James Cook sighted the peninsula in 1770 and thought it was an island.
So we left Christchurch early in the morning with the girls in tow, and headed out east. The weather was meant to be very nice, so we were all expecting some very good views. But nothing like what we got presented with. The views were just breath-taking, so much so that pictures just don’t do it justice.
We took the long scenic drive high up into the peninsula that followed Akaroa Harbour round to Akaroa town. Here are just some of the amazing views we had on the way:
Along the way, there were all sorts of friends on the road, had to be very careful coming round every corner!
By the time we got to Akaroa town, it was time for a nice picnic lunch on the picturesque harbour front :)
We were hoping to do some mountain-biking from the top of one of the craters, but unfortunately they don’t do it in winter due to the poor track conditions, so instead we settled for a wander around town! It became very apparent, very quickly, that there was something very French about Akaroa (meaning Long Harbour in Maori). We found out that Akaroa was the first French settlement back in 1840. There is lots of Rue this and Boulangerie that etc etc…. all added to the effect :)
But one thing that we still could not explain was, right in the centre of town, were North West English Morris Dancers!?!?!
We stayed that night on the peninsula in one of the easterly bays, Okains Bay. We got there early on so we could explore our surroundings. We were staying in a small forest campsite that was right on the beach :) and it was deserted :)
The best thing about the campsite was that it had an awesome play area with a zip wire, kept us happy for ages :) here are just a few of the many pictures we took having fun here lol, such big kids lol.
We had a fun night in our camp kitchen but we all forgot to bring a torch with us. We had about 300m from the kitchen to our vans in the pitch black (being guided by mobile phone light), it felt like something out of Blair Witch (scary film for those who don’t know!).
Just to show what a good day we had chosen to go to the Peninsula. Below is a picture of exactly the same area from the pictures above, but the day after! Quite a difference :)
So back to Christchurch for the girls to upgrade there van to a posh one (called Bender lol!) and onto the Arthur’s Pass road for our day of snowboarding the next day! Whoop!
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