Ice Skating & 'Goodbyes' at Tekapo

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Day 534 (13.09.09)

The final day of our time with Jean and Mike had now arrived. Although our plans following today were to go south and recover some of the areas we’d already visited before heading across country via Arthur’s pass in a couple of weeks we first wanted to visit nearby Lake tekapo which fitted in with jean and Mike’s plans to go North and make it to Christchurch that evening.

A little detour from the main road took us to the alpine village of Ohau next to the lovely mountain ringed lake of the same name.

Back on the road we passed Lake Pukaki again mesmerised by its still, turquoise waters and took the scenic road along the canals to Lake Tekapo.

On hitting town we visited the tiny and very scenic Church of the Good Shepherd sat right on the shores of the lake and made a quick stop at the Sheepdog statue celebrating this animal’s role in building this area of the country.

We sat by the Lake to have a picnic lunch and then sad our sad goodbyes. We had a fantastic time with you - thanks so much for making the trip out here and for spoiling us rotten over the past few weeks! See you soon!

It felt odd being juts one Jucy van again as we journey up the steep and windy road to the top of Mount John, home to the University Observatory. The views from the top of the mountains and Lakes Tekapo, Alexandrina and McGregor were phenomenal and we learned a little about the work of the observatory here.

We found a cheap little unmanned campsite on the shores of little lake McGregor and had a lazy afternoon reading and dozing in the van before heading back toward town later that evening to make use of the outdoor ice skating rink.

We watched an intense training session of the NZ ice blacks - the national ice hockey team before taking to the ice to create some stunning manoeuvres of our own. Skating under the stars was fantastic and there were few other people there - always good with our skating skills!

Back at the campsite and joined there by only one other caravan we settled in for the night.

Day 535 (14.09.08)

Breakfasting by the shores of Lake Alexandrina gave us a great start to the day. The peninsula walk we’d planned to do was closed so we set off for a walk around the shores of Lake Tekapo from near the ice rink giving us great views of the lake and surrounding mountains on another lovely day.

We were starting our journey southwards again today and after our walk set off back down the scenic route stopping for a bite to eat by the canal.

We couldn’t resist another night at Buscot Station so in the early afternoon after dropping in to feed the fish at the salmon farm again we arrived and spent the afternoon making plans for our next couple of weeks. We finished the evening with a dinner with Tony.

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