We came to Akaroa via Rakaia. You could see Arthur's Pass in a distance. Rakaia has the longest bridges (road and rail) in NZ crossing the Rakaia River and are about 1750m long. The Rakia River is a "braided river" as are a lot of the rivers in New Zealand.
From Fairlie to Rakaia, the road is flat. It can be quite boring. But when we arrived at the Banks Peninsula, it was more interesting.
We went to Kaitorete Spit, a mistake. The spit is 25km long, separating the Pacific Ocean from Lake Ellesmere. There is nothing to see. We had lunch instead.
As we carried on, the road got steeper and steeper and it started to wind upwards. When we got to the middle, all 3 of us held our breath and said "holy moly, we still have to get up much higher!" We could see 
the road vertically above us.
When we finally got to the top, with much changing of gears and urging on of the old van (and getting increasingly older and more worn out) we saw the entire bay in front of us. As the expression says– you do not know what is round t
he next corner.
Five towns below us. It was a fantastic view. We started to wind downwards to Barry Bay, then wind up a little towards Duvachelle, then again to Robinson Bay the Takamatua and finally to Akaroa and the Top 10 camp site there.
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