A deeper shade of blue

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October, 31 - Nov 2

Don't be alarmed by the title of this entry. We aren't depressed - no work, lie-ins, amazing experiences - we have no reason to be blue. Unlike Lake Tekapo. The lake is fed by glacial melt waters that contain finely ground rock particles which give it the most amazing colours - something to do with refraction of the light. The lake contains the bluest water we have ever seen that seems to change hue depending on the light. It looks almost opaque, like water in a jar that is used to rinse brushes coated in blue paint.

The journey to Tekapo was quite eventful as our bus had a bit of a breakdown. Thankfully this happened at a rest stop and not on the road in the middle of nowhere with hardly any traffic that we had been travelling on. The bus didn't sound too good as we tried to get out of the car park and then a man ran up to the door to say it was leaking oil. It turns out it wasn't oil but fuel. Half the tank must've been dumped judging by the size of the puddle and the trail leading to the bus. In typical laid back Kiwi fashion when the fire brigade (fortuitously across the road) were asked for some sand to soak up the mess their response was "we don't have anything like that, the sun'll dry it out". We all had to get out while the driver and a passenger had a look in the engine. I had visions of a stray cigarette igniting the fuel and a trail of fire heading to the bus to blow up all our belongings. This would not have been good. Of course this didn't happen and after half an hour we were back on our way.

There isn't an awful lot in Tekapo apart from a tiny strip of restaurants and some hot pools. We didn't go to either. But we did go on a walk up Mt John to get an aerial view of the lake and check out the observatory at the top. Tekapo is a really good place for stargazing but unfortunately for us there was heavy cloud on both of our nights.

We stayed at the YHA which has huge windows in the lounge overlooking the lake. Originally we were to stay there three nights but when we discovered we would be on a bus for Melbourne Cup day we changed it to just two so we could watch the horse race in Christchurch.

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Photos

Lake Tekapo
Reflection in the church window