South Central South Island, NZ

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Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, Mt. Cook (Aoraki)

It was a very casual morning drinking in the view and coffee with our campmates…Scottish folks to the left, Dutch to the right. We did decide to take off late morning and had breakfast for the second time at our new favorite café in New River. Joe had a bagel and lox and I had a decadent white chocolate/boysenberry muffin. We ended up at Lake Tekapo which is turquoise colored by glacial silt. The place is teeming with wildflowers and people. We are amazed to see so many swimmers and water skiers in that cold lake. We also drove to get a good look at Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. As it is with so many place names now, Mt. Cook is known by its Maori name, Aoraki. It’s a handsome mountain and Joe got some birds in the area. This part of the country reminds us a lot of the Patagonia region of Argentina with its brown, barren, wind-blown steppes and glacial lakes. We were going to eat at a recommended Japanese restaurant, but when we tried to get in it was filled with Japanese people. Imagine that! So we ate soup and salad in the camper.

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Comments

[Connie]

I have been catching up on your entries, as I was in Omaha last week. Still an amazing journey you're on- you go to Tasmania, I go to Nebraska. Hmmm... Ok, you said that there were many Americans in NZ, but not in Australia- why?

[J J]

I guess Australia's just to big to find all the Americans there. The Australia dollar and NZ dollar have plummeted against the U.S. dollar and if we went back to Australia, we might encounter more U.S. citizens. This is the time to visit these countries.