TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2011 – 10 PM – Akaroa – Top 10 Holiday Park – We arrived yesterday after leaving Geraldine (by the way, we enjoyed the old movie theater and the movie “Ghost Writer” but we couldn’t stay up and watch the end of the Australian Open (and Andy Murray’s demise) so after seeing the 2nd set we headed to bed. Left Geraldine and wandered through a bunch of country roads and actually lanes (where it was unmarked and narrow) and wound our way to the Akaroa Peninsula.
Saw Ellensmore Lake and Forsyth Lake and then we arrived at Akaroa. The park is up on the mountainside and it is terraced so you can see the harbor—very pretty.
We walked down a bunch of steps to the town and wandered around it. ..very cute town with French influences since it was the French who settled it first. Loved this weird little house—It even had hundreds of orange beer bottle tops stuck to the tree trunks:
Geoff had his portrait painted by a Frenchman:
Sat by the bay and had a glass of wine then went to an Italian restaurant “Vangione’s” that had a very cute terrace area but the sun wasn’t out and the breeze made us cold so we sat inside.
We had a wonderful pizza (I wrote it down but seem to have misplaced it) that was just scrumptious and Geoff picked out a bottle of Merlot from Waiheke Island called “Summer Aphrodesiac” that was the BEST merlot I ever had!
We had a lovely dinner and the staff there are perfect! I decided we HAD to try the “Chocolate pudding” dessert and truly it was to die for! So good, in fact, that we gobbled it up before I could even think of taking a picture! It was sort of a cake-like but with a hot pudding center—they served it in a small soufflé dish along with a scoop of real vanilla ice cream and I could have eaten the whole thing…but we shared it! J It was just lovely. We walked back to camp and here was the toughest part—going back UP all those damn steps when we were full of pizza, merlot and chocolate pudding cake! Poor Geoff had to pull me along at times but we finally made it! Sat in the campervan and ate popcorn and listened to Sinatra while finishing off the leftover wine from a couple days ago (a wonderful Pinot Gris). We both slept well.
Today we stayed around camp and I did the laundry and hung it on the clotheslines since it was a sunny and warm day. I adore sheets that have hung to dry outside….they smell soooooo good!
Geoff napped and read and then late afternoon we drove around the town and up and up and up and all the way out to the South Pacific Ocean and where the harbor mouth is! It was beautiful on the way there.
We turned around to find gray clouds had filed in where there had been sunny skies. It was all so pretty no matter the weather. It just shows that when you are by water you never know from one moment to the next what the weather will do.
We drove back to town, did a few errands , had ice cream at the “dairy” (that’s NZs version of a convenience store but they have the BEST ice cream brand=”Tip Top”) then we parked by the waterfront and I downloaded my last blog. Within an hour the weather changed and it was sunny and warm again….LOL…
Back to camp, dinner, music and now just putting my thoughts down since we will be heading out tomorrow morning. Back over the peninsula roads and take a different route towards Christchurch and go to Lylleton (and stay there if the weather is right) before we head into Chch (that’s the newspaper’s abbreviation for Christchurch!). Another relaxing and joyous day. That’s it for now, love, Sue & Geoff xo p.s. Geoff keeps teasing me about going to the wrong ExploreMore campervan (remember “Aimee”at Mt. Cook?) but there isn’t one close to us in this park and I doubt seriously that I will EVER do THAT again! Sheesh……
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