Blogs from Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 15

On the day of my arrival I went on the walk up to the vast tussock covered plains that define the high area that contains Lake Tekapo, and which is called Mackenzie country after one of the early settlers. I saw the blue lake, the small chapel of the Lord the Good Shephard and the monment to the work that sheepdogs do. I did nachos in the evening with sour cream and all the trimmigs. Before catching the bus the next day, I did the walk to the summit of Mt John where there is a large university research observatory as this is the darkest place in NZ.... read more

Lake Tekapo (say Tak-a-po) is a pretty smart place, its only a sleepy little village but it suited us for one night on our slog upto Christchurch. Didn't fancy the whole 500 km hike in one go. The most unusual thing about the whole area is the really really blue water in all of the lakes, streams and canals that make up the network of waterways that supply New Zealand with most if it's hydro-electric power. The blue water, if anybody is interested, is due to the pulverised and ground up rock from the melting glaciers that feed the waterways, they call this stuff "rock flour" and it stays suspended in the water making it appear blue. That's one for the Geography buffs but we are stuggling to think of anything to put in this entry ... read more

Early pick up from the hostel at 7:45 And went to a street named Baldwin Street which is the worlds steepest street, we walked up to the top otherwise it was a boring drive so slept most of the way, On arrival we could see Mt Cook was covered in snow, we then went to a small church called the church of the good shepherd which had a beautiful view of the lake. We checked in to the hostel and there was two of us decided to walk up Mt John which has a observatory at the top, This walk took 2 hours and had a climb of 420 mtrs above sea level. On return we had a BBQ. ... read more

Hi everyone from Lake Tekapo. Before we tell you about our amazing flight in a six seater Cessna that we took last week, best we take you back to our last few days in Dunedin. As reported we hired a car for a couple of days. On the first day we set off for the southern parts of the island. You are probably getting as fed up of reading about it as we are of saying it BUT the scenery on our trip was absolutely mesmerising. We set off in bright sunny weather and followed the coast route all the way down to the most southerly point - Slope Point. By the time we had reached there the weather had turned completely and it was thundery, cold and wet. On the way we stopped off at ... read more

Day 3: Christchurch-Hanmer Springs The gondola ride was well worth it, after we waited till early afternoon for the weather to clear. Both of us went up; half of us was very determined to overcome a very well-entrenched 30-odd-year fear of heights. The first gondola ride included heart thumping, and insisting the following conditions were followed: looking upward to the mountains, and insisting no-one move around. That agreed, we both enjoyed a terrific ride - although the line was drawn at leaning over the edge of the lookout, even for the obligatory photo. With the height thing overcome (maybe) we might try something higher? The view of 360 degrees included wispy cloud and fog moving fast over velvety green mountains dotted with hardy sheep, winding river, estuary and Christchurch. The, a drive through picturesque country where ... read more