Ōnawe Pa, Banks of Peninsula

How to get there

The best way to get there is to take directions for Akaroa. Then take the detour to Duvachavell Hotel, and from the HillTop tavern, you can view the Onawe Pa.

View from the small hill above the car parking place.

There is a distinctive whale-shaped peninsula on this bay between Akaroa and Wainui. The view is magnificent, and exploring the Ōnawe Pa track with the dogs is fun.

The road is narrow but safe to drive to reach the track. There is a small park for cars, so if you are coming during the summer at weekends, there may not be room to park. However, you can park in the nearby towns like Duvachelle and walk for around 10 minutes.

From this peninsula, we can view Akaroa on one side and Wainui on the other.

The Onawe PA Track

During the walk on the path, you can see a variety of volcanic and plutonic igneous rocks near the center of the Akaroa Volcano. The plutonic igneous rocks are formed by the slow solidification of magma deep below the surface. These rocks give us a unique view into the initial stages of volcanism, an aspect not exposed at any other bank peninsula location. In my opinion, it looks very cool…

Interesting texture and color of the rock

Aristotles
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous

The path goes up, and soon, you have a fantastic view over the bay. The track is easy, and the dogs love it. This little island has a serenity to it and is peaceful. It is weird to think that Onawe Peninsula had in the past a bloody massacre when the Ngati Toa chief invaded it in 1832.

Akaroa

After, we had to stop at Akaroa. There are other towns besides Akaroa in that area, but I think Akaroa is the biggest town where you can find more diversity of food and accommodations. Today is a beautiful day, and we wanted to take the most advantage of it because the weather here in New Zealand is very temperamental, and you never know when it will rain.