Day 4 - Lake Tekapo & Mt Cook

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Another failed attempt at a sleep-in. However, Santa had been. There was the Yahtzee game that looked suspiciously like the one Emma bought in Akaroa. And Santa had bought Emma the BBC production of the Lord of the Rings in a 13 CD Audiobook. She was most pleased with this as she had wanted it for a long time.

We had breakfast in bed, and then made our way to Lake Tekapo to go to the Church of the Good Shepherd for the Christmas Day service. This is a very famous church, as it has a very beautiful altar. Rather than any sort of stained glass, it has clear glass over the altar with an unspoilt view (with the exception of tourists poking the heads in the way) of Lake Tekapo and the surrounding mountains. Again, beautiful turquoise water and beautiful blue skies. We got there early to guarantee ourselves a seat. The church was full, but not bursting at the seams like previous years. We were told that since Christmas was on a Tuesday, the holidayers had not hung around from the weekend to come along to the service. It was a beautiful service, and we met Stuart, the lay preacher there who made us most welcome.

Once the service finished, we drove on to Mt Cook. On the way we met a Japanese cyclist who was riding all the way up to Auckland. He had a very loaded up bicycle so we were quite amazed at his ability to ride through this very hilly country. Once we made Mt. Cook, we had a perfect view of Aoraki (as it is known in Maori) and had lunch at the Hermitage with an unimpeded view. Of course, when we decided to pull the cameras out, the clouds turned out. We drove to the Tasman Valley which is on the other side of Mt Cook. We hiked up the valley to see the Tasman Glacier. Just as we made it to the top, a storm closed in so we made our way back out again. As we drove back south, we passed the Japanese cyclist that we met earlier. He was pushing his bike up the hill, and we were quite worried as he was pushing his bike into a storm to a place where there is only five-star accommodation. Emma suggested he would be camping under his bike seat.

Once we got back to Kimbell, we had our Christmas dinner, which Matt cooked. This was a veritable feast of Wattie’s microwaved dinners - with a choice of either roast beef or roast chicken. The wine list consisted of orange juice.

The first round of the holiday Yahtzee competition followed. Emma is up 2-0. Once we finished, a really big storm hit. The motel had a tin roof, so it was almost deafening. But very cool to watch.

A lovely Christmas day indeed.

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Photos

Lake Tekapo
Church of the Good Shepherd

NZ Alps #1
Alpine Lupins. These are flowering everywhere at the moment.

NZ Alps #2
Lake Pukekue

Tasman Valley #1
The Tasman Glacier

Tasman Valley #2
Looking down the valley.