Day 51: Akaroa, South Island … New Zealand

Sunday, 26 February 2017
At Sea — Pacific Ocean … En Route to Dunedin

Stats @ Ship’s Time 8:40p (NZDT) … UTC 7:40a (26 February)
Temp: 56.8F (13.8C)
Position: 44.24.85S / 172.21.37E

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure.
There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
~ Jawaharal Nehru ~

Our run of blue skies and sunshine ended today when the village of Akaroa greeted us with overcast and gloomy skies.  But at least it didn’t rain — which is what those who made the 53-mile (85 km) drive to Christchurch had to contend with on their tours.  Having been to ChCh in 2015, we stayed local and had a wonderful time despite the wind-induced chill that was present throughout much of the day.

Akaroa — which means Long Harbor in Māori — is billed as New Zealand’s French settlement.  In fact, the tricolor still flies over the spot where the first French settlers arrived, and the street names read Rue This and Rue That as opposed to the English names used around the rest of the village.  Some of the descendants of the original French pioneers still reside here, but that’s where any ties to France end these days.

The village is fairly new to welcoming cruise ships.  Until the 2011 earthquake, which killed 185 people and wreaked untold devastation in the immediate area, ships would dock in Lyttelton for their calls on ChCh.  I must say that I am glad we came to this charming village … even though it meant tendering ashore.

Dawn Princess was in port with us today as well, so Mui and I got an early start to make the most of Akaroa before it got too crowded.  We were in the Insignia Lounge at 7:30a to get our red tickets for the first tender and were ashore shortly after 8:00a.  Having picked up one of the maps available in the ship’s lobby, we wasted no time setting off on the first of several walks we planned to do.  But first I had to stop and photograph the bust of Commander Worsley … of Shackleton’s Endurance fame.  Born and raised here, I credit this favorite son of Akaroa with successfully navigating Shackleton and a few of the men to South Georgia, where they sought help to rescue the rest of Endurance’s crew … which had been left behind on Elephant Island.  (If you are not familiar with this chapter in Antarctic exploration history, you can read more about it here.)

The first walk we did was a flat one.  It followed the shoreline, going by the Akaroa Head Lighthouse, which was moved to its present location in 1980 — 100 years after it went into service.  The light was open for tours today, but we were too early … so we kept walking.  Our destination was the Britomart Monument where the road dead-ended.  Along the way, we stopped to chat with the friendly locals who were out getting their exercise on a quiet summer Sunday.  Everyone was most welcoming and willing to share suggestions of things to do during our visit.

Akaroa Head Lighthouse

When we reached the monument, we had a choice to make.  Retrace our steps to get to some of the other trails, or continue uphill and meander through the residential neighborhoods.  We chose the latter, thus adding quite a bit of cardio to our walk.  At the trailhead to the Anglican Cemetery, we veered off the road to follow a downhill path through the forest.  The trail took us back to the lighthouse and the flat road we had walked earlier.  But before long we were climbing back up, this time through the Garden of Tāne … named for the Māori god of trees and plants.  Walking through the forest once again, we reached the cemeteries for Roman Catholics and Dissenters … referring to those of a different religious persuasion, I think.  What caught our eye at all three cemeteries today were the fallen headstones at several of the plots.  We later learned that this was not due to neglect, but because of the quakes that rumble through the region … sadly on a fairly regular basis.

Charming houses and colorful flowers abound in the residential neighborhoods.

More meandering through residential neighborhoods seldom visited by tourists eventually dropped us down into the part of the village that was originally settled by the French.  From here we followed the shoreline to the War Memorial and found ourselves at a place called Sweet As.  Here we grabbed a couple of meat pies and hot beverages.  The pies were OK — not as good as the ones we had at various places back in 2015 … but they were filling enough to sustain us for the rest of the afternoon, and our hot beverages helped to ward off some of the chill in the air.

Wild flowers and planted gardens add color to our Akaroa walks.

One of the places every local we talked to suggested visiting while in Akaroa was the Giant’s House.  Having come upon mentions of this house in my research, I agreed that it sounded like a must-see.  Our arrival there after lunch was timed perfectly with its noon opening.  The price of admission — NZD $20/person (~ USD $14) — keeps many visitors from venturing in, but by the time we left over two hours later, we felt this interesting attraction was worth every penny.

The house itself is off-limits to the casual visitor as it is operated as a B&B — or at least that’s the impression I got from the sign.  The story goes that the name was given by a little girl who looked up from the valley, saw the house, and said it was so big that a giant must live in it.  In reality, the house was constructed in 1880 by the first manager of the BNZ Bank.  Built of Totora and Kauri wood, and sporting a mahogany staircase imported from France, it is now the home of Josie Martin — the artist who created the fantastic mosaic sculpture garden that we walked about in amazement and pure joy.

Meet Adam and Eve.

The house, which had no garden to begin with, provided a blank canvas for Josie, who was trained in horticulture as well as art.  It is said that she was digging the garden when she found shards of old china buried in the ground … a common practice because there was no trash collection in the early days.  She saved those shards and they became the inspiration for her to give mosaic art a try.  The rest is history as they say.

Today the garden is filled with whimsical, flamboyant, zany, eccentric, colorful — add your own adjective — creations … from staircases to figures of all shapes and kinds.  The eclectic jumble is all set in a glorious garden filled with flowers in every color imaginable.  What should look like a mishmash of figures somehow works well together to create a fairytale type experience, with unexpected finds drawing the visitor deeper and deeper into the garden.  An absolutely wonderful place to visit.

We walked through the garden twice … maybe thrice … finding new details each time … like the broken shards of a saucer with the design of the Turkish flag.  Later I read that one of the 20 art residencies Josie attended was in Turkey, and I imagine she picked up some pottery there as she did in other countries.  Some of the nation-specific items that caught my eye during our wanderings were tiles from Greece, Italy, China, and Mexico … and there were probably a lot more that I missed.

Place des Amis … Plaza of Friends

When we left the Giant’s House it was with wide grins on our faces.  What a joyful place to visit.  That we arrived before the crowds added pleasure to our experience as the place was crawling with people when we finally walked down the stairs marked “for paying visitors only.”  We slowly meandered back to town, running into the house where Commander Worsley grew up by pure chance.  A quick photo and we then moved down the road to check out the historic St Peter’s Church before finding our way to the shoreline and back to the tender pier.

Our day in Akaroa was filled with lots of surprises.  We didn’t know what to expect of this small village … it definitely exceeded our expectations.

For more photos from our day in Akaroa, click here.

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