The rain lasted quite a lot of the night but had cleared away by the time we awoke. However, it was quite chilly and the LLW showed a marked reluctance to assume a vertical position. However, a cup of tea and some gentle chivvying did eventually bear fruit!
After a leisurely breakfast we went down to the town and the LLW insisted on a walk so that shops could be explored at leisure. A cruise ship was in town (Princess Cruises), the population of Akaroa had seemingly doubled and this was reflected in the craft fairs, farmers markets, vintage car tours etc etc that had suddenly materialised to provide for thousands of passengers ready to spend their dollars.
(Cruise liners have been anchoring in Akaroa Harbour since the 2010 earthquake which destroyed Lyttleton, Christchurch's main port. We don't know if the cruise ships offer bus trips to Christchurch but the drive is about 1 1/2 hours and sadly the sites of the city are not what they were.)
The shopping expedition was survived without a major disaster and the LLW was soon in the lovely local coffee shop with cakes and a flat white in hand!
Ray had a short ride through and around the village whilst the LLW sat and read at the edge of the cricket pitch. Much of the ride was spent avoiding aforementioned cruise passengers who did seem intent upon taking photos from the centre of the road and stepping off the pavements without looking.
We returned to the camp site for a restful afternoon but we did book on the Fox II sailing boat (which is apparently NZ's oldest gaff-rigged ketch) to do a dolphin and penguin sailing trip tomorrow (weather looks good with sunshine and reasonably light winds) and resolved the frustrating issue of contacting Maui about our express drop off package. Whilst we have been very happy with the camper van, the service provided by Maui has been poor on this occasion. When eventually someone from Maui called me back, I think the expression "couldn't care less" would sum up her attitude very well. We now feel that we can no longer recommend Maui and will try a different provider next time (yes we are already talking about the next time).
A cup of tea is in order before we walk down to the village for our evening meal.
The LLW had decided that we should walk down to the village (and therefore back again) which entailed around 400 steps each way and then a mile each way once at the bottom of the hill. I did ask her if she was sure about this and she was adamant! Off we went and it was certainly hard work on the knees going down.
As you can see from the photos, many of the buildings in Akaroa are quite quirky and the whole place does have a sort of french charm. Thankfully the cruise ship had departed so it was remarkably quiet in the town.
We had very good, and up market fish and chips at a restaurant on the waterfront and then set off on the walk back. We paced ourselves up the 400 steps and just arrived back at the camper van before it started raining heavily.
After a leisurely breakfast we went down to the town and the LLW insisted on a walk so that shops could be explored at leisure. A cruise ship was in town (Princess Cruises), the population of Akaroa had seemingly doubled and this was reflected in the craft fairs, farmers markets, vintage car tours etc etc that had suddenly materialised to provide for thousands of passengers ready to spend their dollars.
(Cruise liners have been anchoring in Akaroa Harbour since the 2010 earthquake which destroyed Lyttleton, Christchurch's main port. We don't know if the cruise ships offer bus trips to Christchurch but the drive is about 1 1/2 hours and sadly the sites of the city are not what they were.)
The shopping expedition was survived without a major disaster and the LLW was soon in the lovely local coffee shop with cakes and a flat white in hand!
Ray had a short ride through and around the village whilst the LLW sat and read at the edge of the cricket pitch. Much of the ride was spent avoiding aforementioned cruise passengers who did seem intent upon taking photos from the centre of the road and stepping off the pavements without looking.
We returned to the camp site for a restful afternoon but we did book on the Fox II sailing boat (which is apparently NZ's oldest gaff-rigged ketch) to do a dolphin and penguin sailing trip tomorrow (weather looks good with sunshine and reasonably light winds) and resolved the frustrating issue of contacting Maui about our express drop off package. Whilst we have been very happy with the camper van, the service provided by Maui has been poor on this occasion. When eventually someone from Maui called me back, I think the expression "couldn't care less" would sum up her attitude very well. We now feel that we can no longer recommend Maui and will try a different provider next time (yes we are already talking about the next time).
A cup of tea is in order before we walk down to the village for our evening meal.
The LLW had decided that we should walk down to the village (and therefore back again) which entailed around 400 steps each way and then a mile each way once at the bottom of the hill. I did ask her if she was sure about this and she was adamant! Off we went and it was certainly hard work on the knees going down.
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