Entering a mini paradise

We've just arrived this evenjng at our last Airbnb for this part of our journey and wow it is amazing. It's a little cabin set deep in the native bush in a valley, about 2 metres from a river and is about as remote as it can get. Everything about this place is beautiful and we're so excited to fall asleep tonight to the sound of the water outside. Today we left Christchurch and drove the hour and a half scenic drive to Akaroa, a small town settled by the French in Banks Peninsula. It's established in a small bay that leads out to the sea. The sun was shining and everything just looked so postcard picturesque. After desperately finding the public loos we had a stroll around and coffee in a cafe to get on Wi-Fi to actually find the address of our next accomdation, something we forgotten to do before leaving. We then visited a place called The Giant's House which I imagined was a house filled with huge things as if it was owned by a giant. Turns out some girl told the owner that the house looked big enough for a giant so that became it's name. It's quite deceptive when you find out the attraction is actually a garden filled with mosaic artwork. It was cool and interesting to look at but really not our cup of tea so we regretted not reading more into it before visiting , especially when it was $10 each to go in. We spent the rest of our time exploring the other end of town which included a walk through a forest and a trip to the lighthouse. Sitting by the harbourside eating ice creams in the sun was one of the highlights of the day. This Airbnb doesn't have great cooking facilities so we decided to use my birthday gift card on a nice dinner together. My friends Lauren and Lottie sneakily used my sister to get our address to send me a gift voucher from the local post office that can be used like a normal credit card here. It was so thoughtful of them and I've been wanting to use it for something special. When we heard that there's a hill top restaurant with amazing views that do wood fire pizza we just knew this was the the moment to use it. We arrived for an early dinner because we hadn't actually checked in yet and after a family left we managed to get a table right in the window. I had my first lamb on pizza which came with onion and a spicy sauce and paid extra to have the other half of the pizza as a bbq meat combo. We really enjoyed the meal even though the card didn't work in their restaurant in the end! We plan to use it on fuel or something and say the meal was still paid for with it. We left and then drove into such a beautiful part of the area down a narrow 1.6km track until we reached our adorable cabin. We even passed a family out walking their two cows on the road and were greeted by about 20 chickens running towards us as we pulled into the driveway. We're definitely experiencing very rural living and so far we love what we see.Read more