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Published: January 23rd 2007
I Hate Morning
Glynn and Jude just don't do mornings it seems!I am pleased to announce that our first night sleeping in the campervan was a resounding success. We both slept soundly and woke up feeling fresh at 9am.
As we enjoyed breakfast by the sea, we watched a couple of girls bike down to the water's edge and tentatively attempt to go for a swim. It was obviously too cold for them but 10 out of 10 for trying - I wouldn't have been brave enough to try! We also got to watch a goose being evicted from the holiday home behind the car park - the owner told us his cat had been a bit too ambitious about its next meal! I then strolled up through the houses to return the little candle lamp to Heather while Glynn got the van ready. We chatted again for a while and it was all too tempting to stay another night and get to know the family better. I left them the blog address so if you're reading this guys, be sure to leave a message so we know how to get in touch with you again!
Our first stop of the day was back in Akaroa, a town with a
Testing the Water
Is Glynn testing the water or trying out a new ballet move? I think we should be told! French influence left over from a group of French settlers who arrived on the South Island after the Brits had already laid claim to it. Seeing as it was a 100 day voyage back again, they simply stayed put and called this corner of New Zealand home. The legacy that remains includes street names that are still in French like Rue Jolie but aside from a naff art gallery and an over-priced bakery where we couldn't even pick up a proper French style croissant, there was nothing to keep us there for very long.
Even though we weren't desperately fond of Akaroa, the Banks Peninsular is very pretty indeed so we decided to stay in the area and scout around for a different spot for our second night. Using our excellent map book we once again struck gold - this time in a place called Le Bons Bay which was only about an hour's drive away. The cloud was still low on the mountains so driving was difficult as times though it was made considerably easier by the fact that there is hardly anyone else around. Making our way into Le Bons Bay, we parked up under some big
Neigh-bours
They were as amused by the frog van as we were having horses ride past us first thing in the morning! pine trees and went for a look around. To our amazement, Le Bons Bay has the most gorgeous sandy beach that must easily be a kilometer long hidden on the other side of a bank of tussock grassland. As soon as we saw it, we knew that this would be where we would spend our second night in the van. The fact that there were public flushing toilets nearby close by was a major bonus!
We took a nice long walk along the beach and the tide was so far out it made the beach look at least half a kilometer wide in someplaces. We walked over to one side of the bay, rolling up our trouserlegs to cross the cold crystalline waters of a river that flows directly into the sea along one end of the beach. Over the other side of the river, there were rocks absolutely covered in tiny purpley-black mussels waiting for the tide to come back in. The beach was strewn with massive clumps of seaweed that felt like the foam latex material used to make the movie monsters (see Palmerston North blog). We wandered across to look at some small caves before splashing
Akaroa
Aside from a vaguely French influence, Akaroa really wasn't anything special. about in the sea for while though the water was pretty cold there too!
Back at the van, we were joined by a few other campers although no-one seemed too chatty this evening. Instead we entertained ourselves in the best possibly way - by hurtling down a cool zipwire that we had found in the cricket ground behind the toilets. We've both been itching to have a go on one of these since we saw one in a playground in Auckland and today we did it! It was a thrilling ride that started with sitting on a metal upside down T shaped bar then jumping off a purpose built platform. The wire slung you really low to the ground before coming to an almightly thudding halt against a rack of old tires at the other end. It was so cool, even Jish wanted to have a go!
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