Exploring The New Zealand “French” Town of Akaroa – Day 224

Today we are exploring the Frenchest town in New Zealand.

Today we are exploring the little township of Akaroa we have done heaps here so far, we have done some jet boat, we have swam with dolphins we have done some sailing we went on nature cruise and we releases some little blue penguins. It’s a lot of stuff to pack into only one week. but the little township of Akaroa has more to offer. It’s a super historical town and we’re gonna learn all about it today by walking around.

The township of Akaroa is actually the oldest town in Canterbury and it is dubbed the French town of New Zealand. It is not because of all the pigeons around cos the New Zealand native wood pigeon are much classier and cuter than the dirty grey pigeons of the dirty streets of Paris it is because this is where the French settlers arrived for the first time. I’m not gonna go in full detail of what the story is but in short the French arrived, the English were there already so the French laid low settled here and hoped to blend in. And who says French says cheese so we are grabbing ourselves an awesome cheese platter while waiting for the sun to finally pop out because that was a really grey morning.

And now that the sun is out we are leaving the harbour for an art house.

The Giant’s House.

At first it just looks like we’re walking into someone’s back garden but once we enter this garden we realise it’s probably the most epic back garden we’ve ever seen.

This whole thing has been created by one artist who has made all these sculptures completely out of mosaic.

The garden is full of water features a piano which actually plays music, beautiful gardens there’s a cafe here too and an art gallery around the back of the house. And the Giant’s House was actually called the Giants house in Akaroa because back in the day because it used to be one of the biggest houses in the area so only a giant must live in it.

The detail in this garden as well is amazing we walk around about three times spotting different things each time we walk around.

One of our favourite sections of this garden is this little animal walkway with sculptures there’s even mosaic pictures within the walls themselves. you really have to keep an eye out for all these different features.

As per my favorite part is sitting on a massive throne which are overseeing the whole garden I just feel so powerful here ruling both the plants, the animals and all the tourists.

The next section of the garden that we’re gonna be exploring is the art gallery itself. there is a bit of a gallery called Josie Martin Gallery named after, well, Josie Martin which is the artist that created this crazy garden and all those crazy paintings and sculptures.

But the gallery itself is quite small and the sun outside is so inviting that we are heading outside again exploring more of the mosaic gardens. it’s an absolute festival of colours and at some point in the gardens we actually stumble on the artist herself she’s telling us more about her vision behind it and her love for colour and to be honest you can see that everywhere from the cafe, the plants, her haircut, everything is overwhelmingly colourful here.

The intense New Zealand sun is hitting us hard so we head back to the car, get rid of some layers and then go back into Akaroa township. Here we are walking along the waterfront and checking out one last feature of today which is the Akaroa Lighthouse.

Weirdly enough, the lighthouse is sort of situated in the middle of the harbour and not at the end and that’s because once the lighthouse was out of use, some enthusiastic volunteers paid for it to be brought into the harbour to put on display for us to enjoy today and that is certainly something that we do.

Plus, the views from up here are pretty awesome.

Yeah, and that’s it. So tomorrow, we have to sort our campervan out we can possible sell it for parts it might just work but then we need some new wheels. So tomorrow is gonna be pretty hectic. Just join us then and find out what happens cos we don’t know what’s going on. See you then.