Photo: Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand (Public domain)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Akaroa, on its harbour on Banks Peninsula. It starts at the Main Wharf of 1887 to 1888, with the story of Takapūneke and the Ngāti Toa attack of November 1830, and runs out to the six-sided timber lighthouse, moved here from Akaroa Heads in 1980. At the Britomart Monument on Green's Point the walk tells how Captain Stanley raised the British flag on 11 August 1840, days before the French colonists were landed in French Bay. Back along Beach Road come the bust of Frank Worsley of the Endurance expedition and the Gaiety, the Oddfellows' hall that served as the town's cinema. Up the rues of the old settlement are the war memorial, St Peter's of 1864, the Bank of New Zealand corner, the Langlois-Eteveneaux cottage of the early 1840s and the courthouse built on the site of the French company's store. The walk ends at the north end of town, with the Custom House, Daly's Wharf, Trinity Church, the French Cemetery on L'Aube Hill and St Patrick's. Cruise passengers come ashore by tender at the Main Wharf, where the walk begins.
15 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 11 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Main Wharf, Akaroa Lighthouse, Britomart Monument, Statue of Frank Worsley, Gaiety Hall.
Akaroa War Memorial, St Peter's Church, Bank of New Zealand Building, Langlois-Eteveneaux House, Akaroa Courthouse.
Akaroa Custom House, Daly's Wharf, Trinity Church (Presbyterian), French Cemetery, St Patrick's Church (Catholic).
The 155-metre timber wharf of 1887 to 1888, and the story of Takapūneke and the Ngāti Toa attack of November 1830.
The six-sided timber lighthouse with a French lens and Scottish mechanism, cut into three and moved here from Akaroa Heads in 1980.
The granite obelisk on Green's Point, where Captain Stanley raised the British flag on 11 August 1840, ahead of the French settlers.
The bust of Akaroa's Frank Worsley on a plinth of Antarctic rocks, facing the southerlies, with a plaque on the James Caird voyage.
The two-room cottage built between 1841 and 1845, regarded as Akaroa's only genuinely original French-styled building.
The consecrated burial ground of 1840 on L'Aube Hill, its central memorial listing those known to be buried on the hill.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 15 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 15 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Akaroa — the French Settlement on Banks Peninsula, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
15 narration points, including Main Wharf, Akaroa Lighthouse, Britomart Monument, Akaroa War Memorial and Langlois-Eteveneaux House. That is about 18 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 15 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.