Akaroa is a quaint town in the Banks Peninsula on the South Island of New Zealand. It was the first French settlement, 1840, in New Zealand and retains a French flare with all the streets having their original French names. Naturally the British didn’t want the French to claim the land and it is supposedly one of the reasons that the British rushed the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi with the Maoris. It was nice to know that the town had a literary society by 1875.
Most of the houses in the town were kept well with freshly painted exteriors and cottage gardens I would have once given my eye teeth to have.
Not all the houses were painted allowing weathered wood to fungate next to beautifull painted colourful buildings.
Sometimes the paint had seen better days
The town has a population of around 200 but in summer the numbers swell to as many as 7000 people who come for the scenic beauty of the spot whose harbour is sited in the drowned craters of a couple of extinct volcanoes. This has created some wonderful cave systems visible in the harbour which is also home for the rare Hector dolphins.
With all this water it is not only houses that are painted.
I loved the idea of an ideas centre but why did they paint it such a drab colour?
This pink painted house tickled my fancy. They looked out onto a magnificent view of the harbour and I guess they were going to have seating everywhere to take advantage of it.
And for the spiritual needs of the town the church stood out in its pristine white paint job.
And why not have your portrait painted whilst you are there?
The Artist.
No longer in Akaroa but when it comes to painting – did this man feel a wolly painting the perfect scene in Tahiti.
You’ve probably guessed – this week Cee asked us to look at painted surfaces
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
I love the artists statue. What great photos for this week. Thanks Irene 😀
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Glad you enjoyed them Cee
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Gorgeous pictures, Irene.
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Thanks Robbie. It is a gorgeous place.
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Love all of these but especially the one of you on the rusted red dragon, or whatever it is. You are so beautiful!
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Thank you for that compliment Sharon. It was funny I had never seen one of these before and yesterday as I was flicking through I saw one fully loaded with children. It looked great.
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Gorgeous photos. Loving the photos of yourself the best, it looks as though you really had a great time.
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Thanks Teresa. We did have a great time. The second time we went because we had a car the first time we decided to walk around the town and we discovered little gems that we had totally missed when we had the luxury of transport. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
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My pleasure.
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Great visit to a quaint town! Nice to see your smiling face!
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Thanks Noelle. Nice to see you too. Just trying to get myself organised and hope to see you at yours soon. Congrats on your new book. Look forward to reading it.
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