Akaroa, With a population of only 500 the majority of the houses are holiday homes belonging to people from Christchurch and beyond.
Set on a beautiful, sheltered harbour and overlooked by Banks Peninsula Hills, Akaroa is a popular resort village and in summer the temporary population can reach up to 5,000.
Sumner is nestled in a coastal valley separated from the adjacent Chistchurch city suburbs by rugged volcanic hill ridges that end in cliffs that descend to the sea shore in places.
The Sumner RSA (Returned Services Association) building was devastated in a rock fall during the Feb 22 2011 Earthquake.
See footage here; youtu.be/MOE6NSc4rOo
While I would love to just post beautiful landscapes, nature and wildlife – Images of the superb New Zealand scenery, the reality is Christchurch and its suburbs are still struggling under the weight of the task ahead of them, re-building their beautiful city.
Now 3 months on many many buildings are fallen or set to be demolished and rubble still lies in the streets – this is what we saw while we were there.
New Brighton is a coastal suburb of Christchurch, lying to the east of the city centre.
This shot was taken standing on the middle of the 300m pier which struts out into Pegasus Bay.
4 Rivers flow into the bay from north to south they are:
Waipara River
Ashley River
Waimakariri River
Avon River and Heathcote River via the Avon Heathcote Estuary.
Moncks Bay lies on the main road that runs between the suburbs of Recliffs and Sumner in the Avon Heathcote Estuary.
The Clouds above the Estuary are the Nor’west arch or Canterbury Arch, a weather pattern particular to the east coast on New Zealand’s south island and is caused by weather systems moving over the southern alps.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nor%27west_arch
Scarborough Beach, Sumner, NZ. Looking back along the beach towards Cave Rock – a stony outcrop formed from volcanic rock that makes up much of the geology of the area.
In the Avon Heathcote Estuary, Sumner NZ stands Rapanui Rock aka Shag Rock, prior to the Feb 22nd 2011 quake it stood an impressive 11 metres above the sea at low tide now it is considerably smaller and the far side if the stone lies a pile of rubble from where it fell.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapanui_Rock
