We drove over 6 hours from Dunedin to Akaroa. We stopped by the Moeraki Boulders along the way. They were strange spherical boulder in the middle of the beach, as if the giants had been playing with marbles and left them behind. With erosion, some of the round boulders had 'cracked' open. they had unusual deposits of crystals through them. It was very cold by the beach. Found out later that it had only topped 12C that day! We had obviously used up our quota of good weather while in NZ ;-)
We dropped by Christchurch, and it was sad to see that the 2011 earthquake had left a lot of buildings damaged. There were still many empty blocks where rebuilding hadn't started.
We then drove to Akaroa, about 1.5 hours away. Akaroa used to be part of a volcano which last exploded a million years ago. It has an interesting history, where it was settled by both the French and the British at the same time. The town still has a lot of French influence, with some of the street names in French, and the French flag everywhere! Our accommodation was a lovely place with 2 bedrooms and waterfront views, and the reception staff had a French accent (probably a French backpacker).
Highlights:
MK: Trying the new Pinky chocolate bar.
MJ: Had some interesting strawberry iced fingers bread.
MH: The mossy worm from the Avon River.
Logbook:
08:00 (1880 km) Enchilada for breakfast.
09:00 (1880 km) Left Dunedin.
10:22 (1954 km) Moeraki Boulders. Strange spherical boulders in the middle of the beach in the middle of nowhere. The boulders had cracks all over them with crystals in the cracks. Some boulders had totally cracked apart and in pieces.
12:30 (2077 km) Timaru. Lunch of crackers and pizza roll.
13:03 (2077 km) Left Timaru.
15:15 (2244 km) Christchurch. Avon River. Some buildings were still damaged by the earthquake.
17:45 (2325 km) Akaroa. Akaroa Waterfront Motel. Room 9. Dinner of noodles and chicken and cabbage and carrot.