During the mid to late 1800s, this small community was divided by the origin of its settlers. When the British two-masted HMS Britomart arrived on August 16, 1840, Captain Owen Stanley declared Wangaloa (today’s Akaroa) to be the property of the English Crown. Two days later, the Comte de Paris disembarked 64 French immigrants based on the belief the land had been purchased in 1838 by French Captain Jean François Langlois. So, the French immigrants lived in the north and called it Port Louis-Philippe. The English resided in the south. You can still sense the demarcation while walking along this guardrail on Beach Road. It acts as the barbell handle separating the two populated ends of Akaroa.
