| Capt Cook named Banks Peninsula after Sir Joseph | | | | harbours. This is an area made for summer, it has its |
| Banks, the botanist who accompanied him on his | | | | own weather patterns, and in winter it's rugged tops |
| voyage of discovery. Cook originally believed it to be | | | | are bleak, windswept and often snow-covered, |
| an island, which is an easy mistake to make, as | | | | however, winter or summer, it remains cheerfully |
| viewed from the sea, Banks Peninsula does indeed | | | | unkempt, not quite tamed, an endearingly rugged area. |
| look like an island. | | | | This area was settled by the French in 1840, but |
| Indeed, it was an island not long ago in geological time, | | | | quickly discovered that Britain had already laid formal |
| built up by violent volcanic action on the bed of a | | | | claim to the entire country, and still retains some of its |
| shallow sea. But the Canterbury Plains, a giant bed of | | | | Gallic charm. The first concrete evidence of early |
| gravel washed down from the crumbling young | | | | French settlement can be seen in Akaroa, quaint little |
| mountains, gradually reached out and ensnared it | | | | French colonial buildings with delicate wrought iron |
| Today, delightful bays and coves lie between the lava | | | | balconies and shuttered windows, found on streets |
| flows. Remnants of the peninsula's forests are | | | | with French names. Its streets retire into valleys |
| preserved. Pleasant little townships nestle about its | | | | shaded by the spring bush, and remnants of French |
| landward feet and that the heads of its two crater | | | | vineyards can still be found in the vicinity. |