Akaroa Historical Overview - Christchurch City Council

When the Akaroa County first drew up a planning scheme in the 1970s, it was thought
that the permanent resident population would rise from 638 in 1971 to an estimated 930
20 years later, but that the temporary residents (that is those owning dwellings in Akaroa
but not living permanently there) would leap from 772 to 1,800 . 6
Neither the permanent nor temporary residents increased to the extent expected in the
early 1970s. The permanent population reached 834 in 1996, then sank back by 2001 to
795. But the number of holiday homes rose inexorably. The expectation that the town
would double in size between 1972 and 1991 was not too far off the mark. 7
The modest increase in the town’s permanent population was due in part to the
popularity of Akaroa as a place to retire to. Pensioner flats were built on Rue Viard in
1975 and in 1980 the Pompallier Village development was completed. The architect, Don
Donnithorne, designed the development to respect the historic architecture of Akaroa
without slavishly imitating it. As part of the over-all project, the old convent building was
converted into a ten-bed geriatric home. 8
The physical expansion of the town was due primarily to the increase in the number of
holiday homes owned mostly by Christchurch people. To a limited extent, the town was
protected from development pressures by “the hill”; but countervailing this, Akaroa
Harbour was, after Lyttelton Harbour, the best expanse of relatively sheltered water for
boating close to the city. 9
The proliferation of privately owned holiday homes in the last quarter of the 20 th century
was a novel development in the town’s life. It marked a shift from Akaroa’s being a
significant service centre for a local fishing and farming community to its being primarily
a holiday town. Akaroa remained a town for local residents as well as visitors, but the
shift of emphasis was marked.
From the late 1960s the number of building permits for holiday homes began to steadily
outstrip the number of permits for permanent residences. In the first four years of the
1970s, permits were issued for 39 holiday homes and just eight permanent residences.
By 1980 it was estimated that 60 per cent of the homes in Akaroa were holiday homes. In
1990, Gordon Ogilvie described Akaroa as “a semi-suburban, week-end commuter
village”, implying that the town “belonged” by then as much to non-resident weekenders
as to local, full-time residents. 10
Symptomatic of the change was that in 1980, the Anglican church hall, which had been
built in 1916 near the vicarage on Julius Place, was sold and converted to a holiday home.
Later, the stables of the vicarage were also converted to a holiday home. 11
Many of the holiday home owners were also boat owners. The town gained a concrete
boat ramp at the seaward end of Rue Balugerie and another south of the main wharf. In
the second half of the 1970s, a third slipway was constructed off Rue Brittan, with
parking and picnic facilities on reclaimed land on the seaward side of the Recreation
6 Akaroa County District Scheme, 1972
7 2001 Census
8 Ogilvie, Cradle, p. 48; Tales 1940-1990, p. 11; the Press, 12 December 1977
9 Akaroa Civic Trust Newsletter, May 2006, pp. 3-4
10 Akaroa Civic Trust Newsletter, May 2004, p. 4; the Press, 17 September 1980; Ogilvie, Cradle, pp. 7-8;
Akaroa County District Scheme, 1972
11 The Press, 17 September 1980; Akaroa Mail, 7 September 2001, pp. 8-10
AKAROA HERITAGE OVERVIEW : SECTION 7 CHANGE AND GROWTH 1950 TO 2009 PAGE 129