New Zealand: day 9 - Akaroa

This morning we all had a bit of a lie-in.  S was so chilled to the bone last night that I was afraid she was getting ill, but she felt fine when we all woke up (in fact, she was up before me - a rare occurrence!).  Even better, the misery of yesterday's rain and grey and cold had given way to a lovely brisk day with mellow temps and not much wind.  We grabbed coffee and breakfast across the street and headed off on an adventure.

Our destination today was Arakoa, a small town about 90 minutes southeast of Christchurch.  It sits on the slope of a dormant volcano, on a bay that connects the volcano's caldera to the Pacific.  As we rounded a curve over the ridge, the bay and the town opened up to us:

 

That peninsula in the middle of the photo is actually the caldera cap, and at high tide, it becomes an island!

Arakoa is charming.  It's the only french town in all of NZ, and it takes that identity seriously.  There were french shops, french groceries, french flags, and even clerks with french accents in the shops.  We ate a lunch of tarts (French!) at a small cafe called Escargot Rouge (French!).  It being a tourist town, there were multiple cruise offerings, souvenir shops, and so many places to buy wool things!  We even wandered into a Stargazing shop that also sold board games staffed by a young French couple with their adorable French son (French!).  The homes extended up into the hills but the bulk of the CBD sat within 2 blocks of the coast.

It's spring, so the town was full of animal activity - bees were buzzing, birds were chirping, and lambs were frollicking.

Can you find the bee?

These birds were fast!

This couple had a blast annoying the gulls.

This little guy was loud!

We walked up and down the shore, taking in the air and enjoying the lovely day.

On our way out of town, we took a short hike up a steep trail to find Newton's waterfall.  It poured about 25' down and into a beautiful little pool of water that turned into a creek. 

Back in the car, we tried taking a different route back to Christchurch.  This one was called Tourist's Road and immediately went high up on the ridgeline with tight turns and cutbacks.  Being so high gave us stunning views of the harbor.

As we got further along the Tourist Road, we saw some of the teeny hamlets that sat on the tiny bays on the coast of the Pacific.  Each of them was accessible by a steep dirt road, which we decided not to attempt. After a few km of the Tourist Road, S got too queasy from the tight turns, driving on the left, and having almost no shoulder to continue.  So, we took a turn back to the highway and continued back to Christchurch.

When we got back into town, we headed straight for Riverside Market, a large foodhall setup in the CBC in Christchurch.  There are about four restaurants, 4 specialty food shops (grocer, cheese, italian food, gin), and another ten or so food stalls.  We ended up eating at a lovely Shanghainese place and feasted on dumplings, noodles, and scallion pancakes.  

No idea what tomorrow will bring, but I think I'll need to go back to the airport to pick up snow chains. We need to have them in the car for our drive to Milford Sound, and while I had requested them as part of our car rental package, both the rental clerk and I forgot to confirm that when we picked the car up yesterday in the rain.