Akaroa

The mountain goat was pulling at his tether again this morning so it was off the the bottom of the Port Hills bridle track where I dropped him off and continued through the tunnel to Lyttleton. When I was a kid I remember getting on the inter-island ferry  here and it was a very sleezy port town with very little else but pubs and fish and chip shops. 

How it has changed! It was full of upmarket cafes and restaurants and a very busy farmers market. While there were many of the same things that you'd find at a farmers market anywhere there were also many other things that we didn't get in Auckland .... like bunches of Pinot noir grapes!

Tarun eventually caught up with me and said that he had enjoyed his walk.

We thendrove out to Akaroa ... another beautiful drive.

First stop in Akaroa was the i site to find out where the walking tracks were so I could drop off the mountain goat again. Off he went while I explored the town 

Akaroa was originally a French settlement and still retains this character. 

I headed down to the wharf to investigate what the noise I was hearing was all about and was very lucky to be able to watch what turned out to be the worlds first Pastafarian wedding. For those of you who have no idea at all as to what this is all about try googling the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It appears that pirates are the Spaghetti Monsters chosen people so the complete wedding party, the celebrant and the guests were all masquerading as pirates. The whole ceremony was hilarious and filmed by the TV channels.

A bit more exploring and then it was time to pick up Tarun again. It appears he had another good walk .

He had evidently been trying to take a photo of himself doing a headstand up there without a lot of success.

I got the last laugh of the night as Tarun's last words to me before he went to bed were " oh my legs!"