Akaroa

We got to Akaroa around 11 am after passing many cyclists on winding roads and being passed by 3 Lotuses and numerous motorcyclists bending at 45 degree angles around the curves.  Akaroa is a lovely little town that stretches along a very sheltered coastline.  It was settled by the French in the mid 1800s.  They were all set to claim the entire South Island as French territory, but one of their two ships broke a mast on the way over and when they stopped to get it repaired on the North Island, the drunken sailors told of their plans and the British rushed down to claim it as their own, arriving 4 days before the French ship pulled into harbor.  The French had already "purchased" some acreage from the Maori though, so they did establish the town of Akaroa.  For quite some time they used French money and all the streets are named as Rues still. 

Selfie on the boat

Elvira super yacht

We walked through town and decided as it was a lovely day that we would go for a sailboat harbor cruise.  Captain Ray invited us to join him on his ship, designed as a racing ship for the Sydney to Hobart Race in the mid 1940s.  His particular boat wasn’t built until the 1960s, but it was the same design as the boats that won the race 3 years running.  It was a pretty boat built entirely of wood and well-maintained.  While waiting for our cruise to start we got a warehou sandwich from a little fish stand on the wharf.  Best fish sandwich ever!  Perfectly cooked and so fresh. Served on slices of toasted ciabatta.  And just as we were finishing the rare Hooker’s dolphins showed up for a little show.

We retrieved our car from the other end of town and dropped off our bag of laundry (we lucked out – they could clean our laundry while we were cruising and it cost less that the last time we did it ourselves!). Finding parking is a little tricky on a busy weekend.

There were a lot of other people on our cruise, in part because the weather forecast for Monday was looking bad.  We got their pretty early though so we got the “royal seats” behind the wheel for the first part of the cruise.  We chatted with a couple from Chicago who had done a very similar tourist route as we had while we waited for everyone else to board.  After a brief safety instruction we were off.  First we went by a superyacht that was in harbor.  One of those 3 deckers with tinted windows and a small helicopter on the back.  Then Ray put up the mainsail and unfurled the foresail, and the wind died.  So we motored out a ways with Ray giving the background on history, geology and wildlife of the area.  Finally the wind picked up and we were able to do some sailing.  We saw some sea birds and a few dolphins.  As we approached the end of the bay we got to see 2 blue penguins swimming on the water.  We also passed a mussel farm and salmon farm.  On the way back though the dolphins really put on a show leaping towards the boat and surfing along the bow.  They are very small dolphins and very cute. 

A raft of shags (cormorants)

Dolphin at the bow!

We got back around 4:30 and stopped to get our laundry, gas and groceries for dinner before driving 1 km out of town to Akaroa Cottages, our home for the evening.  Our cottage had a gorgeous view over the harbor and we had our little dinner outside on a small patio watching the sun set behind the super yacht.

A little after 3 am we were awakened by a small tremor.  We later found out it was a 4.3.  Akaroa is only 75 km from Christchurch.