Akaroa: we've been mispronouncing it wrong for 6 months!?
Sarah and I made our way east towards Christchurch this morning and because we cut our Tekapo trip short, we decided to stop by Akaroa today instead of making a day trip tomorrow. It is only 45 minutes from Christchurch so it was a great change of plans.
We thought it was A-kar-oh-ah but as usual, we cannot speak Kiwi, and it is pronounced A-kah-roh-ah. Woops. On the way to Akaroa, we're driving along, driving along, same scenery over and over and then out of no where there is a sign, beckoning to me. What does it say? "McQueens Valley" and as we sped by it wondering if it was real or just a mirage, we came up to a bridge that was over..."McQueens Creek"! On the drive back later in the day we pulled off the road for a quick photo op.
Akaroa is a french settlement formed by two volcanos, so it rests upon hills overlooking a very calm secluded bay, full of sailboats. There is not much of a beach, but the weekend and summer crowds use the bay for water sports, eat at the plentiful cafes and bistros on the water and browse the little homes that have been turned into art stops, libraries, ice cream parlors, and the like.
Such a cute town, but we decided not to take advantage of the tours which take tourists to swim with the famous Akaroa dolphins, so we stayed only about 2 hours. Just long enough for the best chicken sandwich of my life, and a very very good mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. Akaroa was shielded from the wind we had experienced in the valley so Sarah and I were very peaceful sitting on a park bench just relaxing and enjoying our ice cream :-)
As we headed out of town, I noticed the gas gauge was headed towards E, so we stopped at a Shell and were reminded fairly quickly how expensive gas is outside of the U.S.! We filled up almost 3/4 of the tank and it cost $70NZD, roughly $52USD. For a small sedan! And not even a full tank! I remember doing the conversions in my head, and estimated about 4 liters in a gallon (its really 3.79 per gallon) and the price was $1.55 per liter. Woah. I went up to the gas attendant and said $6 a gallon!!! And then proceeded to tell him about when the Southeast ran out of gas. He lost interest quickly, so i took the cue, paid and went along my merry way, never to complain about the price of gasoline at the Exxon around the corner!
We stopped briefly in Christchurch and then headed to see the Wordsworth family, Izel, Russell and baby Daniel! We had a lovely visit and then went to bed early - in our own bedroom, with our own bathroom, and such a wonderful feeling of being back in a home!
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