Driving the Banks Peninsula From Akaroa, NZ - Need Instructions!

We are visiting Akaroa, NZ by cruise ship in December. In addition to visiting the town of Akaroa, we are renting a car so that we can drive the Banks Peninsula to take in the beautiful views and scenery. We need driving instructions. I used google maps to get to Banks Peninsula by way of State Highway 75 to Okains Bay Road to Summit Road. What do we do after that? Do we continue to follow Summit Road? Is that the volcanic rim? Is that the route for the great views? Is there somewhere on the web that I can order a map of the route? It seems that most people travel to Akaroa from Christchurch through the Banks Peninsula. Since we are driving from Akaroa, how far should we go toward Christchurch? At what point does the scenery change so that we will want to turn back to Akaroa? Our ship is in port in Akaroa from 7 am to 7 pm, so we have plenty of time, right? Any help you can provide is very much appreciated! Thank you!

Shelley

Please take great care on our roads. We have had many visitors crashes, due to the type of roads we have and the natural tendency of right hand roads users to lapse away from driving on the left. These roads are not an easy drive it will require a lot of concentration with steep hills and blind corners.

Estimates of travel times are always longer than you think so make sure you have the time to return to the ship.

These links may help you.

http://www.fourcorners.co.nz/new-zealand/akaroa-banks-peninsula/

http://www.akaroa.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Akaroa%20Campervan%20Brochure%202013.pdf

The fourcorners site listed above will not open for me, but the Akaroa link has a good map which should be of help.

There is also the automobile association web site with a Time and Distance calculator, which you could check, but allow a bit extra driving time when you are driving on our roads and take extra care as Te Aroha has stated.

http://www.aatravel.co.nz

Have you ever driven CA Highway 1 from San Simeon to Monterey? Because most of the roads around Banks Peninsula (other than SH75) would probably make CH-1 almost look like a freeway in comparison. :eek: :D

There are some stunning views from SH75, where it climbs up and over the hill from Barry's Bay. If you want to see more of Banks Peninsula without travelling too much on the narrower roads then I suggest taking Geddies Pass over to Lyttleton, then returning via Christchurch. You will be able to do this easily in one day - we did it Christchurch -Akaroa-Lyttleton-Christchurch once.

Lyttleton Harbour is also very pretty and I'd suggest a side trip up to Diamond Harbour to maximize your views of this area.

BTW if you activate Google's street view by dragging the little man onto a point on a road you will get a very good idea of what the roads are like. You can "drive" along them by clicking further up the road.

Thank you for all of this help!

Shelley