As you may have spotted from the picture out of the B&B window, the town of Akaroa sits in a natural harbour. This was created when three ancient volcanoes merged into one (probably as a result of eruptions over time) and then part of the outer rim was breached either by the Pacific Ocean, or by an eruption similar to the Mt St. Helen's one. Whatever the cause the crater lake is now navigable, including to cruise ships, as the sides are almost vertical and it is 25m to 30m deep close into the shore. The whole peninsula here, just south of Christchurch, is made up of three more such Volcanos.
Enough geology for now, the important thing you'll be desperate to hear about is the breakfast fruit count, which had another two added to it today - gooseberry and paw paw (or is that pawpaw?). A combination of poor memory and/or poor maths makes us think we must be past thirty by now.
A Bellbird on the Echium in the garden.
With the weather a bit grey, but forecast for better later, we pop into the town to check on the availability of an evening 4 Wheel Drive Penguin tour (that's the vehicle not the penguins). Tour sorted, we have an amble along the harbour whilst deciding on the best option for the rest of the day.
Too many possibilities, so just keep ambling until we reach the quayside.
At this point we spot that there is a harbour nature cruise leaving in about 20mins. With our minds now made up, we pay for aforementioned trip, and after a quick dash to the car to fetch some warmer coats (for some anyway - others had already come prepared!), we are off out into the harbour. They take some piccies of us before we depart, we naively wonder why.
From deep in the harbour there is no sign of it being the sea. The cliff sides loom over you and to all intents and purposes it looks like a lake within the crater of the volcano until you round some headlands, and then The Pacific Ocean hoves into view. The wind is rather keen on the deck, requiring the donning of overtrousers, buff, plus jacket with hood pulled up and tightly battened down via toggles. After checking out the buoyancy aides, Eric decides to retreat to the cabin for a chat with the stuffed white-flippered penguin (it's a sub-species of the blue penguin).
It's in a case so he can't hear it properly - or maybe that's because it's not alive! Keeps him out of harm's way anyway.
As we travel along, the skipper gives us a running commentary on history (French colonisation, British rule), Maori culture, geology and the wildlife. When we boarded the boat he had asked us where we were from - turns out his ex-wife lives in Chepstow!
Another first in church terms - the first non-denominational church in the country.
Our level of religious ignorance means we have no idea what this really means. This was at the Maori settlement (Marae) alongside their meeting house. You can only enter the meeting house at the invitation of an elder. Part of the treaty of Waitangi, mentioned in an earlier blog, was signed here so it is a very important place in cultural terms. They celebrate this every year in February.
Early on in the cruise we see some Hector's Dolphins.
The water is the most incredible turquoise colour and very clear. The captain of the boat says it is remarkably clear today. We can see the dolphins whilst they are under the water. They pass back and forth on both sides of the catamaran, diving for food and returning to the surface after a few minutes.
The cliffs show the horizontal layers of lava and volcanic ash. As the ash is softer than the lava it gets washed out more easily, forming vertical ledges that the shag nest on. Later on we also see vertical columns of basalt rock, similar to those at Fingal's Cave and the Giant's Causeway only not as perfectly hexagonal, apparently due to differences in formation pressure.
Visiting what the locals call Cathedral Cave and Elephant Rock we come quite close to the cliffs, with the swell tossing the boat about a bit, and the waves splashing against the rocks.
The captain demonstrates why the locals call it 'Cathedral Cave' by shouting - it echoes resoundingly - that sounds a bit like a tautology, tautology, tautology.
The boat now traverses the harbour and we spy some NZ fur seals on the other side, as well as an assortment of Shag and White-fronted Terns. Seals were frolicking/sleeping everywhere, including in a rock pool part way up the cliff. They are very elegant swimmers in the water, and we had two of them doing some twists and turns around each other. Once again the clarity of the water allowed splendid views.
The cruise takes us out past the end of the harbour and into the wide open ocean. Blue skies are appearing, but it's still cold. The crew photographer comes around, of course they are flogging the photos from earlier, in a whole package with photos of the wildlife, and a CD. The Financial Controller agrees to purchase - well you only do some things once.
Returning into Akaroa harbour some of the White Flippered Penguins were pointed out floating on the water - gosh are they difficult to see. They sit very low in the sea and blend in very well! Do manage a glimpse before the boat continues back to the pier.
At the harbour a stop for coffee and cake is required. After satisfying our hunger pangs very unhealthily, further ramblings along the waterfront brought us to a lighthouse.
It is only $2.50 to visit. This one had been on Akaroa Heads but was moved here in the 1980s. The NZ equivalent of Trinity House were going to bulldoze into the sea when it was replaced by a new electric light. A local man saved it, paying a dollar for it but then having to move it. The only cost was to hire the crane, all the rest was done with volunteers, including one of the people who was providing information today. They took all the innards out, cut it in three and transported it on the back of a couple of lorries.
Eric studiously regards the winding mechanism that turns the lighthouse lamp.
The whole lighthouse had originally been delivered (in pieces) to Akaroa from Scotland in 1878. The pieces were numbered so it could be reassembled, and they did the same thing in the 1980s. The weights that control the light turning stopped while we were talking to the gentleman and he let the big kid from Wales rewind it. The handle was wooden, possibly oak, and had been used so many times since 1878 (the mechanism has to be rewound every one and a half hours) that it had worn the wood down to the metal shaft in the position where the men's hand would hold it to turn.
Back out to the sunshine slowly breaking through the clouds. A drive around the remainder of the crater rim seemed like a good idea, with a drop down to one of the Pacific beaches from the summit road.
Returning to the rim road, the cloud had not quite lifted from the very tops.
Eric asked the cloud god (from a distance) if he could do something about this...
...And he did.
No restaurants will be open by the time we return from our evening penguin outing so we have an early picnic tea on the waterfront.
There are some interesting looking 'cooking' pots scattered around the promenade. Eric wonders if these are for cooking children in, they look so much like the pots regular cannibals use in all the best movies.
Oh no, Eric sees now that they were used by the whaling boats.
Eric had his portrait painted by a local French artist.
Picked up in some 4WD buses for a trip to The Wildside project and the penguins. One of us sits in the from seat - all the better to be scared out of his wits by the drops on the side of the road, particularly when we get to the gravel bits. We have some photo opportunity stops on the way up.
The guide also explains that the Banks Peninsula has some endemic plants that are found nowhere else: the Banks Peninsula Daisy, a Hebe and a small green orchid (now why is that familiar?). There are also Coprosma trees, which are very stunted up here because of the wind and alpine type conditions. They have leaves that are on the inside and the branches are on the outside - an adaptation developed to prevent grazing by the Moa, the largest flightless bird on the planet until it was hunted to extinction by the Maori.
We arrive at Flea Bay Farm, and are greeted by...the sheep and lambs. The black sheep are a breed called Romney.
One of the larger ones looks to modelled itself on Bob Marley,
and is as nosey as the cow was.
Eric tried herding them but was trampled under foot poor lad. He took a while to recover.
We get to bottle feed one of the lambs before we set out to 'monitor' some penguin nest boxes. But first we had to don some camouflage ponchos so we wouldn't disturb the birds, and they handed out binoculars.
One of the Penguin pair will stay with the chick in the nest box until they are 4 weeks old. After this both parents will go and fish leaving the chicks until they return with the food.
The lady (Avril) told us we could take photos as long as we didn't use flash.
Chicks that are over 4 weeks old waiting for their parents to bring their meal home.
Then it was off along a track to a hide and a wait for the penguins to come ashore. We could see and hear them as they floated in groups all down the middle of the bay.
Just before sunset they started coming ashore, jumping up onto the rocks
and climbing across to a preening area before preparing to make their way up the cliff to feed the chicks. We had to leave at this point to make sure we were out of the way before they came along the tracks to the boxes and natural nest holes.
Back in the bus we make our way out along the gravel road, only to find some penguins crossing to the grass bank beyond. Once again Welsh herding expertise is called upon and I leap into action - can now add 'coaxing penguins to a safe place to avoid being run over' to the CV.
Is the steep gravel road less scary in the dark? That's a matter of opinion!
Spot a Little Owl on our way down into Akaroa.
Return to base tired but very content with the day's events.