Akaroa's French influences from the 1800s are nurtured and preserved by locals. Photo / File
A tiny colonial outpost today exerts a big pull on tourists, writes Don Donovan.
Next time you visit Akaroa, and admire the French touches that give this seaside town on Banks Peninsula a special charm, spare a thought for the bold Jean Langlois who made it all possible.
Langlois skippered the whaler Cachalot from Normandy and, after visiting Akaroa Harbour, felt it would be
a good base from which France might colonise the South Island of New Zealand.
He negotiated a doubtful deed of purchase with some Ngai Tahu chiefs, then sailed for France where he encouraged the formation of the colonising Nanto-Bordelaise Company and the despatch of 63 migrants to Akaroa in 1840.
The rest is history: no French colony eventuated; the plan was scotched by the pre-emptive establishment of British sovereignty upon the signing of the Waitangi Treaty. But the immigrants came and stayed, Jean Langlois's brother, Aimable, among them.
