Road Trip, Day 5

Before we checked out of the B&B today, Curt decided to go for a run this morning and got a little lost ... er I mean, he had an Adventure. Once he returned, we went for our final breakfast: Curt had very British porridge, Erica tried beans on toast (!), and Nolan fed bits of sausage to Miss Winnie whose belly was dragging even closer to the ground today.

Next, it was time for an Adventure! We were headed to a little French town about 1.5 hours away from Christchurch, called Akaroa. Somehow we found ourselves driving towards the airport before we turned around. And turned around. And ultimately got turned around the right way. It was good to know that we hadn't lost our touch.

On the drive to Akaroa, Nolan liked all the sheep we saw:
9:11 - "Look there's sheep"
9:13 - "Oh my God, there's more sheep!"
9:14 - "Look there's some sheep"
9:16 - "Hey - sheep. You don't see that every day."
It's always good to have Nolan along for entertainment.


After a tasty stop at a cheese factory, we arrived in Akaroa which was founded by some French whalers and has retained some of its Frenchness. For instance, it still has streets named Rue Benoit and Rue Balguerie. Our B&B was located on Rue Jolie which means "pretty" in French (and has nothing to do with Angelina). It was a cute little town on secluded French Bay and is a popular weekend destination for Christchurchians. Visiting Akaroa was as close to France as our recent French graduate (Nolan) was going to get.


Our B&B in Akaroa was run by a spunky little lady named Rosemary. She had a twinkle in her eye and a wry smile, and was full of stories of the locals. One millionaire moved here 10 years ago to start a vineyard, and 3 years later- right when the vines were ready to start producing wine - he disappeared without a trace. Nobody knows where he went or what happened to him. Did he get sick of his life and go back to UK? Was he in trouble? Was he swept out to sea? Later that evening, when Curt and I were walking by the lighthouse, he directed my eyes to a spot overlooking the water.
"See those rocks? that's where he jumped."
Uh huh.
"Look how the rocks are all red. That's his blood."
Gee, thanks, Curt.

We liked wandering around the town - I'm pretty sure I made everyone stop at the ice cream shop ... and at the fudge shop. We even found a wool shop and bought a sweater for Nolan! Maybe he'll stop making fun of all the sheep now. And we wandered around the beach, where Erica found more good shells. She's been acquiring quite a collection on this trip. We ate cheese (from today's cheese factory) and croissants (very French, don't you think?) for dinner on the veranda of the B&B. Rosemary had an incredible garden, with lemon trees and mandarin orange trees and butterflies everywhere. Ah. This is the life.

That evening, we saw an amazing clear midnight blue sky that I will try to describe: Usually the sky looks like it has maybe 100 white dots - stars. Tonight, we could see the same 100 white dots ... plus we could see thousands/millions of other microscopic white sprinkles. It's as if someone sprinkled sugar crystals all over the dark background, and the 100 white spots are still there too, only they're bigger and brighter than the sprinkles. Combined, the sprinkles and the dots were magical and we couldn't stop gazing upward. None of us had ever seen such a clear sky with so many stars visible. Undoubtedly, it helped that we're in a remote area of the southern hemisphere, removed from serious light pollution. Admittedly, we're still not very good at recognising any constellations in the southern sky, even the Southern Cross which is a national symbol and is on New Zealand's flag. But that didn't matter. We were astonished by the raw splendour of it. It was amazingly, wonderfully, staggeringly beyond words.