Akaroa and Banks Peninsula (6th March)

My plan today is to make my way down towards Christchurch, I fly out in just 3 days time so plan to be down in the right kind of area in time. Explaining how I missed my flight home due to too many things still to see and do might wash with the family but probably not with work!

I would really like to do (drive or by train) Arthurs Pass but I also want to go to Bank Peninsula as well as see some of Christchurch. Decisions decisions!



















Akaroa and Banks Peninsula























In the end I opted for Banks Peninsula (at least first off) and the little village of Akoroa. This was before I realised that Akoroa was 83 km from the main highway down a whole series of very narrow, very winding, with large drop offs roads. Oh well, I’ve started now. And I’m so glad I did, it’s always nice to find yourself somewhere that you weren’t particularly planning on visiting for it to then be really very beautiful. I managed to get the last bed again (hard to believe but true apparently) in a lovely tiny little place on the main street.

After a look around the village/town I headed back to the hostel for a bite to eat and a relax. Now, I’m always interested in and by the people I meet when I travel and sometimes even mystified by them! So when I got to the hostel, there were two guys playing scrabble, a Kiwi guy on a weeks holiday from Franz Josef and a German guy (it seems almost as much as Germany as England is travelling in NZ at the mo!). I started chatting with them and to my dismay and total surprise the German guy was having the worst time possible, he had been in NZ for 40 days and was hating every single minute of it and he had planned to be here for a year! And he really did hate the whole experience, there was only one other person that I’ve met who felt the same way, I met him in Kaikoura and he was from Finland. It is a real shame though, this is an incredible place, fantastic scenery, fantastic location, beautiful sights and amazing wildlife not forgetting the people both living here and travelling around, yet these two guys were not having a great time. I did feel for them, especially the guy here cause I think from what he was saying that he was mainly feeling a little homesick. I hope at some point he manages to settle into the whole travelling experience cause once you do there’s just no stopping! :-)