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Published: February 2nd 2014
Lake Tekapo from Observatory HillKia Ora ( Hello and welcome) On Friday we left Christchurch to travel to Lake Tekapo and it was cloudy. The journey took us through some wonderful countryside again and we stopped wherever we could to take in the views. We travelled across the Canterbury plains and over the Rakaia River via the longest bridge in New Zealand. The fields were full of sheep and cows and there appeared to be many more per field than we are used to back home. As we passed through Burkes Pass near to Lake Tekapo, the weather immediately changed to brilliant blue skies and hot sun. Lake Tekapo is a huge stretch of water and it was a vivid turquoise colour and not a ripple on the surface. Our Lodge was a beautiful building with only four bedrooms and our hosts, Stephanie and Alistair, we're very attentive . If ever you come this way you must stop here. We drove to the Mount John Observatory and looked out over the whole of the lake and the surrounding countryside, it really was breathtaking. On the evening we sat on our bedroom balcony, overlooking the lake with a bottle of red wine provided by our wonderful
Clay Cliffshosts.....what a life !! Saturday saw us head off to Dunedin, but once again the sun had disappeared. However within the hour the sun came out and when we stopped to look at some famous Clay Cliffs it was baking hot and we needed our hats and sun cream. We stopped to look at Moeraki Boulder Beach to see the huge spherical boulders scattered across the sand, but guess what.....the tide was in and it rained so we trudged along the beach to see the last few boulders on view wrapped up in our raincoats. It was like being back on Towyn beach!!! We continued to Dunedin through increasingly hilly landscape and once again the weather got murky. Dunedin is the Edinburgh of New Zealand and has a lot of Scottish connections reflected in its buildings, it's history and the accents of many of its people. On Sunday morning we explored Dunedin and then drove down the Otago peninsular to visit Larnach Castle which is the only castle in New Zealand. It stands on a hill in the centre of the peninsula with stunning views across The Otago harbour, Dunedin and the Pacific Ocean. At the end of the peninsula
Boulder Beach......wet and windy!!!is a famous sanctuary for the Royal Albatross. We saw several of these magnificent birds sitting on their nests and one actually flew over us a couple of times. These are huge birds and have a wingspan of up to three metres, so you can imagine it was quite a sight. The weather was glorious all day and we hope it continues tomorrow as we head off to Queenstown.
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Helen & Dave
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Making memories
Fantastic descriptions and photos again but who's that strange woman on the bridge :o) What a trip. Now you've got Milford Sound and the glaciers to look forward to. Fabulous!!! Queenstown is great fun and very 'buzzy'. We liked it a lot. This is brilliant. We feel like we're on the trip with you. 3 cheers for the internet I say. xxx