Kia ora: C’ést magnifique, cést jolie ooh la, la! Mais wait a minute where the hell are we?

Enjoying the sun, finally

C’ést magnifique, cést jolie ooh la, la! Mais wait a minute where the hell are we? Akaroa has been confusing tourists coming off their cruise ships (in their thousands on Friday) because apparently the passengers were not sure what country they had sailed to. This was reported in the newspaper yesterday. The first settlers in Akaroa were French and this small picturesque waterfront town plays on that like nobody’s business. Consequently as much French as possible is displayed on signs, shopfronts, menus etc. Most of the original French street names have remained and new enterprises still use the French Connection.

We have a super self-contained modern unit – here that’s called a motel complete with heating which we need!

I mentioned picturesque above and that is really a word that we haven’t used up till now to describe NZ towns/villages. Why not? Because it just hasn’t applied at all. We think, and we’re guessing here, that the Kiwis assume there’s enough beauty all around in the landscape (true). As a result they don’t bother to do much about the appearance of their main streets market places or whatever. The big towns are different of course and we loved Wellington but the small places are pretty much all affected by the ‘hillbilly’ look. You’re right Miranda to think of the US, that’s just what I said to Peter, even though I’ve never been to the States.
Koud
Het is koud bij jullie, zag ik op internet. Eindelijk winter! En hier schijnt eindelijk weer zon, maar het is nog wel koud. Volgens sommigen die we spraken is dit de koelste zomer in tientallen jaren. Deze keer weinig tekst en meer foto’s. Let op de foto’s uit Lyttelton waar we vandaag heen zijn gereden (klik hier voor een kaart van de Banks Peninsula). We werden een beetje verdrietig om te zien hoeveel schade de aardbevingen van vorig jaar hebben aangericht. Meer dan de helft van de winkels is gesloten omdat het pand totaal is verdwenen of omdat het nog niet is vrijgegeven door de autoriteiten.