Today I went to visit the French town of Akaroa, which is located on the Banks penisula and was formed by a volcano. Left Christchurch at 9am on the scenic tour bus. The first stop was at Birdlings Flat Beach on the Kaitorete Spit. The driver gave us little bags to collect stones which (they come up really nice if you polish them). So we all got off the bus and went down to the beach to collect stones and I took a couple of photos as well. Then it started to hail! It was a really heavy hail storm - we all legged it back to the bus. We then drove over the volcano and stopped at the top at the Hilltop Tavern. There were patches of snow around and there was also snow on the surrounding hills. Its supposed to be summer!! Also stopped at Barrys Bay Cheese factory for some cheese tasting. I didn't like their cheese much. Then we got down to Akaroa. It was a really quaint little town with french street names and a real french feel to it. There was a motel called La Rochelle which brought back memories of French holidays. It really started to rain heavily at one point so I did a bit of shopping and stopped in a fudge shop to buy some fudge and also to do a bit of tasting. It was really nice. Had a walk along the sea front and then caught the bus back to Christchurch. Akaroa is a really pretty little town, but it was a shame that the weather was so bad.