Akaroa and Okains Bay

[Sarah again...]  With our time with Hal quickly running out, we were up early the next morning to make tracks for our next destination - Akaroa and the Banks Peninsula.  On our way out of town we stopped quickly at Lake Tekapo's historic Church of the Good Sheppard.  It's apparently a popular spot for weddings, and it's easy to see why!

Driving through the rolling hills of the Canterbury region, we finally stopped to take a picture of some of New Zealand's famous sheep.  We've seen them everywhere, but hadn't yet pulled over to get a shot.  Let's just say the sheep were uncooperative subjects.

The Banks Peninsula is just southeast of Christchurch.  Geologically it is formed from three volcanic craters.  The dry hills and gorgeous blue water were somewhat reminiscent of our travels in Turkey along the Eastern Mediterranean.

Looking down into one of the bays from atop the rim of the volcano.

After a pretty boring four hour drive we finally reached our first stop - Barrys Bay Cheese.  There you can watch cheese being made, watch a cheese making video if you miss the real action, and taste some of their wares.  Delicious!  We walked away with some edam that didn't last very long at dinner that night.  And we also grabbed some manuka honey (made from nectar of manuka tree flowers, a very Kiwi thing) for a reasonable price.  (Most manuka honey we had seen to this point was sold in health food stores as some kind of homeopathic cure-all, for truly outrageous prices.)

Akaroa, the main town on the Banks Peninsula, was the site of New Zealand's first French settlement, and they play that up quite a bit for visitors.  It's filled with cruise ship tourists but it's a pretty nice place to spend a sunny January afternoon.

Along the main promenade.

Some of the many shells littering the beach.

Check out this motorhome!  Not real wood or stained glass, but still looks pretty cool. Though obviously not as cool as Hal's glowing orange.

After an iced facecloth and cool drink, these cruise ship passengers were carted back to the safety of their ship.

Many of the town's streets bear French names.

Akaroa was hit pretty hard by the 2011 earthquakes.  This war monument has not been fixed yet.  Note the missing buttress on the left.

A beer for Chad and a cider for me (or two...) to finish the afternoon.

We headed that night to an oceanside campsite at Okains Bay, down a steep, narrow, and winding road (not like that's much different from the rest of New Zealand!).  Since the kids had gone back to school already, it was a quiet spot and a great place to spend our last night.

Chad cooked up some sausages that he had bought at the French butcher in town.

A beach walk apres dinner.

This huge cave had a firepit in it, but we weren't venturing in there after the earthquakes!

My parents' dog Allie will have some serious competition for pine cone chasing if Chad loves them as much as it appears in this picture!

Chad is the king of the castle - the playground here was great even for bigger kids like us!

And so ended our last night with Hal.  The next day we were off to Christchurch to return him and prepare for our Saturday flight to the North Island.