Banks-Peninsula

28th December 2009 Another cloudy day today, but not to be defeated we borrowed a couple of bikes from the hostel and cycled round to the two nearest bays to the hostel, French Farm Bay and Duvauchelle Bay. After some lunch back at the hostel we headed out in the car to explore some of the more remote areas of Banks Peninsula, including Little Akaloa, where we stopped for a picnic lunch, and Okains Bay. There’s a lovely beach at Okains Bay with a camping ground. Unfortunately it was rather cold when we got out here, so we didn’t linger for too long. ...

24th December 2009 A lazy breakfast was followed by a pleasant morning wandering around the small township of Akaroa. Set on the Banks Peninsula, which is the result of violent erruptions by three volcanoes millions of years ago, it was originally the caldera of an ancient volcano which filled with sea water as the oceans rose to make it the pretty little harbour it is today. ...

23rd December 2009 On to the very last leg of our New Zealand adventure today, a week-long stay at a small place about an hour and a half from Christchurch called Akaroa. This is where we’ll be enjoying the festive period doing not much apart from reading, a bit of walking and generally relaxing before the madness of Sydney over New Year. We stopped off to do our ‘Christmas shop’ in Christchurch, which although busier than normal was in no way as bad as the insanity of Tescos a few days before Christmas. ...

13th December 2009 One of my second cousins lives in Christchurch, so today we had arranged to meet up with her and her boyfriend Hayden for a spot of lunch. We were experiencing another dry day, so after they picked us up, we headed out towards Banks’ Peninsula. There we stopped at a place called Sign of the Kiwi at Port Hills, from here we had a stunning views across Christchurch to the Southern Alps in the distance. We took a short path around the hillside and enjoyed the views over Lyttleton Harbour in the other direction. ...