Beautiful Banks Peninsula

The Banks Peninsula, that little piece that sticks off the east coast of the South Island, is just two hours drive from Christchurch. We didn't go to the Banks Peninsula during our first visit to Christchurch in August, but the timing worked out just right for us to spend a week there. I had to wait a week between my first and second rabies shots, so we spent a week on the Banks Peninsula. For the nth time the Quaker community has been amazingly generous. First of all we stayed with Julian, Bridget, & family in Christchurch. We met them at summer gathering in Dec-Jan and saw Julian again while we were staying in Wellington. Julian put us in touch with another Quaker family from Christchurch who has a bach (beach/vacation house) in LeBons Bay on the Banks Peninsula.



Derry & Elizabeth generously let us stay at their bach for a week while we explored the Bank Peninsula. What a cool old house! It's probably the oldest house we've been in in New Zealand. The newspaper they found covering the upstairs walls was from 1881 so it's at least that old. It had the feeling of a good guest house that was loved and lived in. The house had 14 beds in 4 bedrooms, plus a sleep out! Obviously they enjoyed being able to host lots and lots of people when the occasion arose. There was a great collection of books, games, and puzzles.

For the first three days at the bach the weather was cloudy, drizzly and generally kept us inside reading and doing puzzles. We drove to the nearest sizeable town (=has a petrol station and small grocery) and hardly saw anything but mist and clouds. Above a certain elevation we were simply in the clouds and couldn't see a thing. We did a lot of reading and listening to Harry Potter books on mp3.


Matt built a 14-story card house with our 3 decks of cards and many of theirs. Then he tried to make a hole in the middle to stick his arm through and it all came down.


I did this 1000-piece postage stamp puzzle all by myself. Somewhat insanely, I worked on this puzzle for 7.5 hours straight from start to finish while listening to Harry Potter and eating chocolate chip cookie dough. Matt didn't put in a single piece.

Last Friday the weather cleared up spectacularly. We really would've missed out on the amazing Banks Peninsula landscape if we'd only been there for those three dreary days. Friday and Saturday were both beautiful so we did a lot of Geocaching and went to some great places. The scenery is very dramatic with huge hills and beautiful bays. The Peninsula is the remains of two extinct volcanoes, one centered on Akaroa harbor and the other centered further north towards Christchurch. The Banks Peninsula was once a volcanic island, but gradually the Southern Alps eroded and the debris formed the Canterbury plains, eventually connecting the Banks Peninsula to the mainland.


This is looking roughly west across Akaroa Harbor with the ocean in the background.

We found Geocaches at two different native bush reserves that had HUGE totara trees. In September Matt and I each planted a totara in Waimate to offset some our emissions for coming to New Zealand. Some day our trees will look like this...



...or like this!


My favorite Geocache from the Banks Peninsula was on a tiny little peninsula (43°46'19.66"S, 172°55'33.12"E) at the northern end of Akaroa Harbor. It's a good example of why we love geocaching, because we might have considered it but probably wouldn't have actually hiked out there. It was the site of a large Maori pa (fortified village) but when it was attacked by other Maori there was no escape and many, many people were killed there.


We thought we were supposed to take the narrow path along the ridge of the narrow bit but it was terribly treacherous and eroded. We were walking on a tiny ridge only about 20 cm wide in some places at least 10 m above the water. It wasn't until we got to a dead end that we realized there must be an easier way. Indeed, there was. We could simply walk along the shore. But, our efforts were not in vain. While navigating the narrow ridge I spotted two Hector's dolphins on the west side of the peninsula. The Bank Peninsula is the favorite hang out of the Hector's dolphin.


You can see the steep, narrow bits behind me. I saw the Hector's dolphins off to the left.

On Saturday night we were going to do one last Geocache in LeBons Bay in the hope that we might see blue penguins coming in for the night. On the way we ran into two Israeli girls looking for a campground that closed 2 years ago. It was dark and they'd only been in Christchurch so far in NZ, so we suggested they stay the night with us at the bach since there certainly were enough beds. The next day we took them Geocaching and had a nice time hanging out with them playing cards and board games. We told them all the great free camping places we found since they were also traveling around in a station wagon on the cheap.



Keren and Hadas Geocaching with us in LeBons Bay.

On Monday we went back to Christchurch and stayed with Julian & gang again. Tuesday I got my 2nd rabies shot and we headed to Waimate! That's where we are now. More on that later. One post is enough for tonight.

Carrie