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Akaroa- South Island, New Zealand

By Cheryl

What a beauty!

After saying goodbye to our friends in Motueka, we made our way to the Banks Peninsula- a peninsula that was formed by a volcanic eruption... the whole thing... check it out on Google maps - it's very cool.

It's about a 90 minute trek east of Christchurch.  It has truly breath-taking views, combining green mountains and many bays of sheltered turquoise ocean water.

Akaroa is the main town on the peninsula and is New Zealand's most 'French' town.  It was originally settled by French settlers and retains some of that heritage.  The town has french street names and you see the odd french word on restaurant signs... but in truth, it's not especially French, in our opinion.

Since the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, Akaroa has become a major hub for cruise ships but on non-cruise-ship-days, it is a quiet town of ~700 people with a supermarket, restaurants and souvenir shops.  Most of the cruise shippers scatter to Christchurch and elsewhere so not much of a crowd!

Coming into the bays from Christchurch

Kilometres of hilly green farms


Turquoise ocean waters


Sharp drop-offs road-side

After a stunning drive, we arrived to a piece of paradise that we were lucky enough to call home for 2 weeks.  We stayed 8 km from Akaroa in a quiet enclave of beautiful homes, all boasting incredible views.

Lots of hairpin turns

We saw more sheep than people

The view from our 'home away from home'

This longer stay was planned to give us all a break from the busyness of traveling and moving every 2-3 days.  What a great stop it turned out to be.

We got caught up on school work.

Some independent work time on projects


Phys Ed class at the local community centre
Phys Ed class on a river bank


Recess at Christchurch's largest playground

Science class at the beach- these ducklings kept following us around

Art class at the beach

The kids learned new games.

Family pool tournament

Hours of New Zealand Monopoly- where you collect 2 million for passing go!

We explored different bays, rivers and beaches.  We stumbled onto so many incredible intact sea shells - from giant snails to Paua to massive oysters and Nautilus shells... it was amazing!


Our local beach- a short 15-minute walk

Beautiful Okains Bay Beach

Another local beach

A resident seal at Le Bons Bay Beach

Beautiful volcanic sand - checkout this water colour - surreal!

Onawe Peninsula



Another picture of Okains Bay Beach
Lots of different shells... not many photos of them though... these plain ones made the blog - who knew?

On the Banks Peninsula, we didn't feel like we were 'traveling', we just 'lived.  We maintained a real semblance of routine in this little paradise... nice to get back to a few tried-and-true healthy habits, and "fuel-up" for ongoing travel.


Trying to remember it is almost Christmas despite the beachy sunshine
Yum- no cookie cutters so Chelsea cut these out with a knife

Mike missed his guitar- lots of music over the past 2 weeks

Canuck kids'll swim anywhere, anytime!

Mike and I escaped for a few runs...the mountains were killer!

Summit road - a real nail-biter!

New Zealand is a special place but the Banks Peninsula, specifically our little nook, will forever hold a place in our hearts.

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