Beautiful Akaroa

For our mini get away, Tony and I opted to go to Beautiful Akaroa on the banks peninsular. 

On Wednesday we hopped into the car for the drive, stopping in Christchurch along the way, to do a little shopping and grab some lunch.

It was a beautiful day, pouring with sunshine. The afternoon drive out to the town was wonderful with some very scenic views, but no stopping places to capture them.

We had booked to stay at Blythcliffe a beautiful and historic B&B very close to the water front, but also close to a native bush forest. Our bedroom was the Rose Room.

And our hosts had placed fresh flowers for us, cut from their own gardens.

Our room had direct access out onto a lovely balcony, set with chairs and tables.

With views looking out over the gardens.

And up into the Native bush forest at the back and side of the property. 

The forest is a part of the gardens and we were invited to wander the trials.

Which of course we did. 

We took the bridge over the stream.

And followed the path into the forest.

The only sounds were the babbling of the stream and the birds singing and calling around us.

There is a lot more to explore, but I did not have the right footwear with me. So we returned to 

the garden to explore it a little more.

We found some neighbours.

And spectacular views of the house.

Our hosts were preparing for a garden wedding the next day, but did not mind us wandering on the lawns.

'The girls' we were told would provide fresh eggs for breakfast.

And Blackberry is 16 years old and finds the heat altogether too much.

He did say hello when I stopped to give him a stroke and scratch his head.

After we had finished exploring, we returned to our balcony and just sat in the sun for a while, before preparing to go out for tea.

We were only a couple of minutes walk away for the waterfront. You can see it there between the trees.

After a lovely meal we went for a stroll along the waterfront.

I forgot to take photos, except for this one. What a beautiful memorial to the fallen.

We didn't go far and soon returned to our balcony to enjoy the lovely complimentary bubbles our hosts had given us.

While we watched the sun set.

And listened to the stream bubbling away and the birds settling in for the night.

I found a book to read. Amid a pile of western style novels and historical books about the town, I found the only book about fairies!

Trust a Manxgirl to find the fairies.

Once it was a little darker and cooler, we explored the gardens again.

During the day this wee shelter was a cool shady spot to hide from the sun, but at night it was transformed.

The house looked a little different too. Those lighted windows on the left were our room lights.

Blackberry had risen from his previous spot and was sat at the door meowing away.

I'm not sure what he was saying, maybe he was telling us he felt better now the sun had gone down and things had cooled off a little.

We only stayed one night, but we have vowed to return. Such a beautiful house in a very pretty town.

We had plans to do some touristy stuff the following day, but we woke up to this....

We had a leisurely breakfast and a drive around the coast, but the weather showed no signs of improving and everything we wanted to do was outdoorsy. We opted to return to Christchurch.

*

As I said previously, we had stopped in Christchurch to do some shopping, Tony visited his fine scale model store and while we were there I had spotted something new across the street and suggested that it might be a good place to visit as our plans in Akaroa had been spoiled by the rain.

The Museum of Toys and collectibles was a fun trip along memory lane for both of us. 

Look what I found.

As well as shopping for Tony, we had shopped for me on Wednesday. I found a new to me store and we went along for a visit.

A Heart Full of Sewing was a lovely little store tucked away in the back of a shopping mall.

I found some beautiful Batiks, of course I bought some.

The top ones came as a bundle.

And I made my own bundle of blues.

After our visit to the toy museum, Tony suggested we find another shop I might like to visit.

He knows I have wanted to visit this place for a while and suggested we go take a look.

The Sewing Room is in Darfield, not really on our way home, but not too far out of the way either.

Another lovely store, with a huge sale table.

Kind of hard to see in these photos, but I found two pieces of white on white at 20% off

And because this piece of blue has a tiny mark right at the selvedge I got 1.5 meters at 30% off.

After a lovely lunch at The Fat Beagle we headed home.

Our mini get away was over.

But as I said earlier, we have vowed to return to Akaroa, there is so much we didn't get to do.

It might take more than one trip.

Of course we would return to the same lovely B&B.

I wonder if the weather cleared in time for the wedding?

The were putting up a marquee as we left. I hope it was only needed as shade from the sun.