Leaving for AKAROA

Following a quick breakfast we packed up the car and headed off down the coast in the general direction of Akaroa where we are planning to spend four nights R & R. The traffic was quite bad, four cars in the way, and then we found the cable cars to the top of the mountain by the side of Christchurch. As the weather was a bit grey we decided to miss out on the trip for the moment and perhaps do it when the weather is brighter later in the week. We took the side roads down past Governors Bay, from where we could see a very large Cruise Ship at the terminal and down along the coast to Diamond Harbour. Lunch was a quick sandwich and over the hills to AKAROA. The route so far had been on metalled roads but over the hill to the other side of the Banks Peninsular it was an unmade up road which was not too bad at first but then it deteriorated. More of that later. However we came across a truck which was blocking the road whilst they were loading sheep, you don't get that on the A 308, and we had a choice to either wait 40 minutes until they had finished loading or drive back about one hour and take a different route. So we waited. Eventually once we got going again the road went higher and higher and was getting quite narrow and with mountain on one side of the road and a 3000 foot drop on the other side we were beginning to think perhaps the RAV 4 would have been better. To turn around was not a good option with a much bigger car than we had planned. It started getting darker as we went in to the clouds/mist and soon we had some heavy wet mist and the roads were getting more bumpy . With that spirit of real adventure we carried on although our thoughts went back to a similar time when we went through snow to Lake Tahoe. Anyway finally we went downhill and obviously survived to be able to write this stuff. We arrived in Akaroa and found our Motel accommodation at The Akaroa Criterion Motel right opposite the sea.
The photo below is the view from our room
which is very nice and overlooking the sea. Dinner was from the local Fish & Chip shop which was packed but very good food indeed. And so to bed.