Road Trip - Banks Peninsula

Akaroa.
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As renting a car proved so easy to do in Queenstown, we decided to do the same again in Christchurch. We again rented for four days,planning to head south for two days before New Year, and north for two days after.

The first two days of our trip were focused on Banks Peninsula, which stretches out into the Pacific Ocean to the south-east of Christchurch.

The first day we awoke to heavy cloud and rain. The plan was to head to the town of Akaroa via the summit road over the Port Hills, but the clouds made the road a little difficult and the supposed views over Christchurch and Lyttleton Harbour were non-existent. We instead just headed straight for Akaroa. The town is set in a bay on the south side of the peninsula, surrounded by hills. The town is quite small, and is still influenced by its first settlers, from France, with many street names still written in french. Sadly, this tranquil little place was under siege from the weather while we there, strong winds and driving rain were enough to put us off staying beyond lunch. Instead we headed back to Christchurch and hoped for better weather the next day.

Looking over to Lyttleton from Diamond Harbour.
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Day two, and better weather, but that is not to say it was good weather. The cloud was a bit higher and the rain had reduced to a light drizzle. We decided to explore Lyttleton Harbour, our first stop being the port of Lyttleton itself. This was the first place where european settlers set foot when they decided to inhabit this area. Nowadays. the town is a little rundown, and seen as the bad end of Christchurch district. It seemed a pleasent enough place to us, but there was not much to do, and so we set out on the coastal road around the bay. We drove to Diamond Harbour on the other side of the bay, making numerous photo stops on the way. After lunch, we decided to tackle the summit road again, the weather was still not great, but the views over Lyttleton Harbour and Christchurch were still pretty spectacular. We had a brief walk, but the wind and drizzle soon forced us back to the car. We finished the summit road just in time as the weather worsened. We decided to head home and warm up.

Lyttleton Harbour. Lyttleton is on the left, Diamond Harbour on the right.
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That evening was of course, New Years Eve, we saw the new year from Cathedral Square with fireworks and some local band, it was a good night, but we didn't stay up much beyond midnight as we were hitting the road again the following day.

J