Our Great Adventure: Akaroa Day 158 23/02/2015

The plan for today was to drive south down the east coast to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula stopping off at Christchurch along the way. We set off just before 9am to give ourselves time for a stroll around New Zealand's second largest city. As we were heading down the coast from Kaikoura we spotted dolphins out to sea. We guessed they were dusky dolphins which are often seen near here. We stopped and enjoyed be entertained by their acrobatics before continuing south. The road goes inland from here passing through arid landscapes and more wineries. There are lots of opportunities to stop off at beaches and nature reserves along the way but we decided to continue and get to Christchurch. We headed out towards the airport initially to the Apollo Campervan depot to replace some of the broken items in our van before parking up at Hagley Park next to the Botanic Gardens where we had lunch in our van before wandering into the city (England are playing Scotland in the world cricket club cup today in Christchurch but Simon didn't have any desire to go after Friday's abysmal performance). Christchurch was devastated in the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes which left 186 people dead. The city is still struggling to regenerate itself from the impact with much of the centre looking like a huge empty car park. Whilst work is clearly ongoing to rebuild the scale of evidence didn't appear extensive and it's interesting to read that the rebuild plans span 20 years. We walked passed Cathedral Square with the remains of Christchurch Cathedral which was badly damaged in the February 2011 earthquake and subsequent earthquakes in June and December 2011. A transitional cathedral, known as the Cardboard Cathedral, now serves as the city's temporary cathedral. Nearby there's a temporary memorial opposite where the CTV building once stood, 186 seats, for the victims of the earthquakes. After a few hours we headed back through the gardens to our van and continued south to Banks Peninsular. Captain Cook sighted the peninsular in 1770 and, thinking it was an island, named it after the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks. The views were beautiful as we drove along Summit Road which goes around the edge of one of the original craters before dropping down into Akaroa. After checking in at the campsite we walked down to the town and had a stroll along the prom. The French settled here once and the town strives to re-create the feel of a French provisional village. We even saw people playing boules on the edge of the cricket green. We wandered back up the hill to the campsite and enjoyed beer overlooking the sea before heading inside for dinner.