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Published: March 17th 2009
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OKereru Cottage
Home of, well, many Kereru! To get to Akaroa, we first had to reach Christchurch, the South Island’s biggest city. Beyond Christchurch is Banks Peninsula. This rocky peninsula is the remains of a couple of volcanoes that were active in millennia past when NZ was formed. Both volcanic craters are now natural harbours, and Akaroa is the second of these.
The road out from Christchurch follows Lake Grassmere for a while, then ascends the ancient lava folds, winding up and around, then down through hair-pin bends, and up again. Akaroa is reached after over 50 miles of this often narrow and winding road.
Priscilla’s place is in Wainui, high up a twisting gravel road. And it was a “road” not to be imagined… One extremely steep hill, a one lane track that appeared little more than a footpath wide, yet two vehicles were supposed to pass if they met.
A friendly hare met us and hopped obediently up in the direction of the expectant host’s driveway. Her home ‘Okereru’ is a former hydrangea nursery. The gardens here were lovely and lush, the house charming and the view magnificent.
This name means, “Place of the Kereru.” While here we saw many of these
Paula and Grace, with David
Learning about the finer points of sheep farming native Woodpigeons, once populous in many areas. They swoop and flap slowly overhead and are a wonderful sight, with their plumage of iridescent green and purple.
On our first evening we met David, the gentlemanly sheep farmer, Priscilla’s NZ beau. Priscilla is American and only spends one month per year in her lovely vacation home, so we all worked hard on her garden, contributing our labor to the formidable job of cramming a year’s worth of garden maintenance into the time allotted.
We were there only 5 days, but we worked for 10, or so it felt at times.
In the evenings, Priscilla made great meals and entertained on two of the nights. The second evening, she introduced us to some friends and neighbors who were also from the States, who had also bought a vacation home just down the road.
The wife, when introduced to Paula, squinted at her and said “I know you”.
“You do? asked Paula, squinting back.
Turned out that Robyn and Paula had worked together in Switzerland 37 years ago and had traveled through Greece together for a month, but had lost touch with each other after that! What
an amazing coincidence! They have vowed now to stay in touch.
If this were not enough, the next evening Priscilla entertained again and this time a man who had come from the same little town in Vermont that we had was at dinner. He had many acquaintances in common with Graci, although he had left and moved to NZ some time ago and he and Graci had never met before. He now lived above Priscilla, at the top of the mountain.
The next day, Graci asked Priscilla who she was inviting for dinner that night who knew Anthony! We all had a good laugh at that, but the synchronicity was really astounding.
We took an afternoon off and went to Christchurch via the road less traveled (an even steeper and narrower way over the mountain). Unfortunately, we met some other cars coming down towards us on this track that was really only one lane wide. We pulled to one side to allow them to pass and got stuck in a ditch.
Fortunately, the last car in the group pulled over to try to help us out. Yet even with many hands pushing, they were unable to
A magnificent push!
But all to no avail. We had to be towed out. The perils of one lane metal roads... budge us as the left rear wheel had no purchase and was slipping badly in the mud left by several days rain. So, they gave Anthony a ride back to David’s farm where a rope was found, came back with him, and towed us easily free of the mud and out onto the gravel road.
We thanked them heartily, and were on our way. The only damage was a dent to our back door, from an energetic helper’s hands (not serious - it popped out again a week later when Paula slammed the door), and many sets of muddy fingerprint art across our van’s rear end.
The road wound ever upwards, and we followed it. This route over the mountain was supposed to be even more scenic than the normal route, but sadly the ridge was shrouded in cloud and we weren’t able to see much beyond a kilometre in any direction.
After our hillside adventure we arrived in Christchurch mid afternoon, which did not leave enough time to accomplish all that we hoped. Clearly it would require a full day to get to Christchurch, do our sightseeing (and dolphin watching in nearby Lyttleton Harbour) and return
to Wainui before it got too late in the evening.
We gave the outing another shot a day later, leaving early in the morning. We got to see the Hector dolphins, briefly, out near the mouth of the Lyttleton Harbour.
As the sea was calm, our launch operator headed out along the peninsula for a while, before finding the elusive mammals. They are small and grey with rounded dorsal fins. There were only two of them, but we considered ourselves lucky when they appeared and cavorted near our boat for a while, since there is no guarantee of seeing them at all.
We got a much better look at the albatross on the rocks on the way out and they didn’t mind posing for us in the least.
After coming ashore we took a surprisingly smooth ride on the gondola that took us on a steep cable ride up the Port Hills for an impressive vista over the city and beyond. The cars slow down upon reaching the top and bottom terminals and you have to hop on or off smartly before they swing round and start back again.
We had lunch at the top,
Splitting wood...
...just another wwoofer whacking off the edges of each log to ensure they fitted in the small firebox. and ogled the impressive views, 270 degrees around us, of Lyttleton, Christchurch and suburbs, and beyond. Many pics were snapped and, despite the chilly wind, a good time was had by all.
An aside: As we entered the gondola for the trip up, a woman had taken our picture, and by the time we came down to leave, a souvenir package had been put together for us - folder with map and frightening balloon-headed pictures of us in the gondola with photoshopped vistas around us - and postcards of the same for our loved ones back home, all for the low, low price of $35. We successfully resisted the urge to accommodate the friendly young salesman who accosted us upon leaving. We can take our own ugly pictures to inflict upon our travelblog readers, thanks very much. For free!
Back at Priscilla’s, more weeds were pulled, and thistles chopped. On the next free afternoon we went to Akaroa for a look around. Paula and Graci fell in love with this charming little town and declared it their favorite spot in NZ.
Indeed, this whole region is stunning (Graci’s favorite word) which is really saying something in a
country abounding in beauty.
We walked around in the drizzle, peeking into shops and the library, then stopped into a jewelry shop so Paula could shop for paua. She got Ant and Graci to come in too, and a friendship was struck with the owner Greg, who promised both girls free paua shells and a sunny day the next day if we would return. We laughed together and left with a promise to test his word.
We wandered a bit further, and after finding nothing but “booked out” places, found a restaurant that was prepared to squeeze us in early in the evening. It was a great dinner.
Obviously one must book in advance for a dinner out in Akaroa.
The next morning, Paula who is an early riser, saw it was raining heavily and she could just barely make out the hills across the harbour. With a groan, she sat down to read her emails. Not long later, however, she spotted a few rays of sun struggling though the cloud cover, making two bright spots on the darkened water. She preserved the moment with a photo and sent words of encouragement and positive energy to
the sun, which, in the end, did prevail, and the day turned out to be beautiful.
As Greg’s word had proved to be good, we packed up the car and drove over to his shop. Sure enough, he had a box with several paua shells in it, for us to choose from. Most places we have visited sell these anywhere from $7 to $25. Graci and Paula got to pick their favorites, and Greg gifted them with a smile. Then, it was time to say goodbye to our new friend and Akaroa.
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