Akaroa (year-round population 600) is a tiny little French town on the Banks Peninsula of the South Island. If you don't believe me about the French part, look at this:
Our 120 km route would take us to 140 mail customers, 13 bays, and lots of winding, narrow roads.
We arrived in the center of Akaroa via tender and found the shiny red van for our independent tour - the Eastern Bays Scenic Mail Run. Our tour consisted of a 5-hour drive along a rural mail delivery route with a contract mail carrier. Our driver/postman/guide, Robin, was as nice as can be. We had a grand total of 8 passengers on our tour.
Akaroa Harbor is a large volcanic caldera.
Robin picks up mail dropped off here, next to the country store:We passed a number of farms and learned about efforts to reclaim some of the deforested farmland. There are many land trusts in New Zealand involved in this effort.
We drove through a small village where the school had been closed when the student population fell below nine. Now the students are driven in to Akaroa. One of Robin's other jobs is school bus driver. His mail run falls between the morning school pick-up and the afternoon drop-off.
Robin delivers mail to some post office boxes at the abandoned school. 
Parcels delivered a few days ago (on the left) have not been picked up yet. They contain expensive wines mailed to a nearby lodge. They are clearly marked as cases of wine. The honor system still works here.
We stopped at a small picnic area on a beach and enjoyed snacks provided by Robin, including a nice plum cake baked by his wife.
These flowers are called "hot pokers."
Some cows wandered onto the road. Here comes the farmer and his dogs to round them up.
More scenery.
Another stop and a short walk at Robin's favorite beach.
Lamb jam:
We are almost back to Akaroa. You can see the ship anchored off the point.A charming little church in town.
My BIG score of the day, at a souvenir shop!
Score!
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