New Zealand – Banks Peninsula and Heading South

We started our touring on Thursday by exploring the Banks Peninsula to the east of Christchurch.  The weather gods were looking down on us as we had a nice, warm day.

We rounded a bend on the windy road to be greeted with this vista.  How gorgeous is that.

A row of colourful boat sheds were down by the water.

Our destination was Akaroa, which was settled by the French.  Another lovely boat shed.

They were selling seafood chowder down at the jetty, but I thought 9am was just a tad to early.  I’ll have some somewhere in our travels.

Our first lighthouse.

A pretty streetscape with French inspired names on businesses.

 

Are you sure we are in New Zealand?

Maybe we are in Ireland, with St Patrick’s Church?

 

On our return trip we noticed a little lane to the side to La Bons Bay.  So, down we went to this gorgeous little beach.  Are you sure we aren’t on the Isle of Man? It has a similar feel to a little bay we know there.

 

 

Back on track we headed up The Summit Road, named for obvious reasons.

Another lovely view down into the bay. Are you sure we aren’t in Scotland?

How is this for quirky holiday accommodation … “Silo Stay”. I suppose if you don’t get many visitors you could just tow it to somewhere else.

Banks Peninsula was certainly a beautiful introduction to the New Zealand landscape.  If this is a sign of things to come we should have a wonderful time.

From here we headed a few hours down the road to stay with Loulee and Tony.  This was a part of our holiday we were really looking forward to.  It was so nice to see them again.  They have recently moved from the Isle of Man, which is where we have got to know them and had visited on a few occasions.  Much chatting took place, as you can imagine.