An ancient volcano

A sunny morning greeted me when I pulled back the curtains. The weathermen had got it wrong and today was going to be fantastic! Pulling on lightweight clothing instead of the winter gear we had mostly filled our cases with, we loaded the car with our camera equipment and took off in search of beautiful scenery.
The hired GPS was programmed with an address in Akaroa so that it would guide us through the cobweb of streets of Christchurch. Once out of the city the GPS was switched off. From here on we were just exploring.
What a treat, the scenery at every turn was so amazing that I wanted to stop and take photo after photo. Since I am the driver that is just what happened! I would share with you the 130 photos I took but I think that loading them into the blog would create a few problems. Instead I will put only three of them!

1/160 sec F/13 14MM iso 200

An hotel high above the Akaroa Harbour had a carpark large enough for both cars and buses so everyone could share their view of the water and hills below. What a wonderful pattern is created by the hills and fingers of sea. This peninsular was all created many millions of years ago when a massive volcano erupted and erupted to build a massive pointed mountain. Erosion over the centuries along with the movement of the continent has left an amazing circle of low mountains with the sea in the low valleys. I shall have to see if I can find an aerial shot of the peninsular.
Our ultimate destination was the popular little town of Akaroa.

1/80 sec f/11 18mm ISO200

Akaroa was once a whaling station settled by the French. Drawing on this history the streets have all been given French names and many of the houses display the French flag and gift shops specialize in French themed gifts.
Tourism has been an active and important part of the life of this town since Christchurch was a village so many of the quaint little buildings are quite old.

1/160 sec f/9 18mm ISO 200

Having enjoyed our day so much we were reluctant to return directly back to Christchurch so we crossed the peninsular to take a look at the port of Lyttelton before we ran out of energy altogether. That was worth it! The port is fascinating and the buildings of the main street are so like those of old parts of Great Britain that I felt quite English! Again – lots of photos!
A drive through the Lyttelton tunnel was an incredible end to a wonderful day trip.
AJ