Akaroa, a wee bit french

We had another WWoofing job set up in Timaru on the evening 15th of February. On the drive south we stopped in Christchurch to pick up our car registration that had come in the mail there. It happened to be Valentine's day and spent the evening with Solveig and Shippy (sorry if I'm spelling it wrong). We watched chick flicks -- Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow and Chocolat with Juliette Binoche -- and drank pink wine. The next morning Clare and I drove to the Akaroa, a coastal provincial town southwest of Christchurch. It was a SLEEPY little town but we found a gorgeous place (below) to take a hike. We lucked out because it was low tide and were able to trek around the beaches. As we climbed further onto the giant rock, the scenery changed to meadow then lush forest. We saw a bird perched in the trees that looked like a peacock had an affair with a pigeon. We didn't know what to make of it.







We cruised out of Akaroa and stopped at a general store in Dunsandel. By the way we had almost just run out of gas but luckily a couple to road bikers steered us to a petrol/diesel station. We were in high spirits and I had read about this store and it's famous apple cider back at Gill and Graham's place. We shared the Camla cider, which was hands down our favorite. (We had been tasting quite a few ciders lately.) And a tasty frittata. Clare was stoked because it was gluten & dairy free so she wrote down the ingredients to recreate later: corn, red bell pepper (capsicum in NZ), sweet potato (kumara in NZ), potato, parsley.

The Dunsandel Store

Camla cider made from Kingston Black and Sweet Alford apples