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Akaroa Historical Overview - Christchurch City Council

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Figure 5.28. For a time in the late 19 th century and early 20 th century, <strong>Akaroa</strong> had two<br />

wharves side-by-side at its southern end. By this time, Beach Road had an almost<br />

continuous line of business premises and there were houses on the east side of Rue<br />

Jolie above the Gaiety Theatre (lower right) but there is only a single villa (which has<br />

survived) on the west side of the street. Ref: 2231-1<br />

Access to <strong>Akaroa</strong> by land<br />

The sea was the main way <strong>Akaroa</strong> maintained contact with the rest of Canterbury<br />

through the 19 th century, but people started coming and going overland in the 1840s.<br />

While French naval personnel were stationed at <strong>Akaroa</strong> from 1840 to 1846 they built<br />

some roads, including a bridle track from <strong>Akaroa</strong> round to the Head of the Bay<br />

(Duvauchelle).<br />

By the early 1850s, it was not unusual for travellers from <strong>Christchurch</strong> to <strong>Akaroa</strong> to take a<br />

boat from Lyttelton to Pigeon Bay, walk over the relatively low saddle to the Head of the<br />

Bay by way of a foot track, then walk on round to <strong>Akaroa</strong> or take another boat from the<br />

Head of the Bay to <strong>Akaroa</strong>. 77<br />

Henry Sewell made his way to <strong>Akaroa</strong> in 1853-54 by this route. On one of his later visits,<br />

Sewell took an alternative route over the hills on the far side of the harbour from <strong>Akaroa</strong><br />

down to the Little River valley near the shore of Wairewa (Lake Forsyth). 78<br />

From the mid 1850s on, the Provincial Government started providing funds to improve<br />

the “<strong>Akaroa</strong> bridle road” around the head of the harbour. By 1864, the road was good<br />

enough for the ferry service between <strong>Akaroa</strong> and Duvauchelle to be discontinued. 79 Work<br />

began on the road over Hilltop in 1858. But it was not until February 1872 that the coach<br />

road linking <strong>Akaroa</strong> to <strong>Christchurch</strong> was completed. Cobb and Company coaches began<br />

providing a service over the road immediately after the road had been completed, but<br />

traffic by boat between <strong>Akaroa</strong> and Lyttelton continued. 80<br />

77 Lyttelton Times, 31 January 1852<br />

78 Sewell, Journal, vol. I, pp. 328-29, 444-45<br />

79 Andersen, Place Names, p. 42<br />

80 Ogilvie, Cradle, p. 41<br />

AKAROA HERITAGE OVERVIEW : SECTION 5 THE COLONIAL TOWN 1850 TO 1900 PAGE 61

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