As We woke up to a brilliant blue sky on Monday we decided to change our plans and go to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsular and leave Christchurch CBD for Tuesday.
Brian at the motel recommended driving the top road on approaching Akaroa rather than the coast road that most people take. As we saw 'most people' i.e the 3 other cars on the road' drop down the coast road we turned up a steep road and then had the most stunning drive high above the coast with incredible views at every turn.
How I wish I could post my photos but they are now on disc and as soon as I get my hands on a pc I will upload them.
We stopped so many times to look in awe at these fabulous vistas but finally drove down a perilously long, steep road into Akaroa. Akaroa owes it's existence to volcanic activity like so much of NZ. It was settled by the French in the 1800s and has a distinctive French feel. The roads have French names and the food looked good! It was very hot and gorgeously sunny. We had a long lazy lunch sitting by the open windows of an old trading post. We ordered a seafood platter and alongside the scallops, greenlipped mussels and prawns we discovered three delicious fillets of Brill. Yummmmmmmmm
We drove back along the coast road and through Littleton. After Akaroa we found it rather shabby and depressing. We didn't stop long. 24hrs later we felt bad that we had disliked this port that had now lost 60% of it's buildings. The narrow cliff road we had driven was now covered in boulders.
We had had a lovely day and looked forward to our visit to Christchurch Cathedral, Art Gallery and. arts Centre the next day.........
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