Funky Towns - Akaroa

Akaroa’s Town Crier Steve Le Lievre arrives after a morning of tree-felling and offers a calloused handshake. “I’ve normally got my white gloves on for these things,” he says apologetically. A direct descendant of the first French settlers in Akaroa, Steve is an enthusiastic advocate for the village’s history and heritage.

“I’ll get into costume on a Saturday to meet the cruise ships and talk to people around town…”

He started working as the town crier 21 years ago, with his first re-enactment of the historic landing for the Bastille Day celebrations. Now, he says, he has completed more landings than Napoleon.

Akaroa is a tiny time bubble of New Zealand’s colonial history, with French street (or ‘rue’) names and quaint heritage cottages. With a population of just under 700, the condensed nature of the community makes it easy for the heritage to be preserved, says local historian Suky Thompson.

Suky swooshes along the waterfront promenade, her hair tucked beneath a ruffled bonnet and Victorian cape billowing in the breeze, a cane basket of brochures slung over one wrist.

“The people here really embrace the history of the village,” she says. “There are things like the biannual French festival and the balls, which have been running since 1860. But the real, genuine heart is the re-enactment of the first landing because that is carried out by the actual descendants. It’s not just anybody.”

Back in 1840 a shipload of French emigrants, including Steve Le Lievre’s great, great grandfather, landed on the Banks Peninsula and thought that Akaroa looked like a pretty good spot to establish a colony. Although they were fended off by the British forces, who had already settled over the hill in Christchurch, a core group remained.

“There are still many descendants here going back six or seven generations,” says Suky. “There are people over at Okains Bay who are all descended from four original families.”

With just one road in and out, Akaroa feels isolated and, somehow, settled.

“You can’t take Akaroa out of its landscape,” says Suky. “You come through Little River and it starts to feel like you’re coming into a village, then over the hill and you just get blown away by the view of the harbour. And then, of course, you get to Akaroa with its wonderful collection of historic buildings.”

People invest a lot of energy into the community, she says. Emma Howells who, with her husband Paul, runs the town’s Little Bistro, agrees. She says the Akaroa community has been very supportive of their French-themed restaurant. “It’s really cool,” she says, “We get people turning up at the kitchen door with stuff from their gardens. This week we had someone come in with a huge bunch of rhubarb, so tonight we have pickled rhubarb on the menu.”

The Little Bistro menu also includes a playful nod to the town’s heritage, composed daily on a manual typewriter, one side written in French and the other in English.

It’s one more piece of evidence showing the community’s determination to keep the French spirit alive.