Akaroa (pop. 756) is a harbor town and tourist resort on the Banks Peninsula on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. In 1840, a French organization called the Nanto-Bordelaise Company made plans to establish a French settlement at Akaroa. But the British government authorities prevented the French from carrying out their plans by taking formal possession of the South Island on Aug. 10, 1840. French immigrants arrived in the area nine days later. Many of their descendants still live there. A few old wooden houses in the town, designed in French style, still survive.
