Daily Photo – Hilltop on Banks Peninsula

I headed northeast along State Highway 75 through the small settlements of Little River, Cooptown, and Puaha. I was aiming for Akaroa, tucked in a small bay on the eastern side of Banks Peninsula. The road wound its way, almost painfully slowly, over the rugged hills that separate the hundreds of tiny bays on the peninsula from the flat plains of the wider Canterbury region.

I drove and drove, the road twisting upward as the pace of the journey dropped to a crawl. At one point, the traffic was moving so slowly, thanks to an annoyance of campervans, that I pulled over to take in the views, which were quite magnificent. Before cresting the hill, the landscape undulates with rugged farmland that stretches over the peaks before giving way to hillsides that tumble through green pastures to the water’s edge. Then, suddenly, you’re faced with a quiet, dreamy landscape filled with bays and inlets that seem oblivious to the outside world, operating on a different timescale.