Advertisement
Published: August 8th 2007
Today saw us covering another 600 km (360 mi) to get from Christchurch to Queenstown, up in the Southern Alps. There was some debate over whether we took a route that was to cover the a few west coast sites, including several glaciers, but that would've added another 200 km and at least 2 hours. So, we opted for a more direct route that took us by nearly as many sights and might actually get us in before dark.
Along the way, we stopped at what is known as the most photographed church in New Zealand, the Church of the Good Shepherd, found along the shores of Lake Tekapo. The church itself is nice though nothing special. It's quite small with a stone and mortar facade. Inside, however, is a different story. The view behind the altar is spectacular, with a view over the adjacent lake.
There was a lot of driving to be done today, so I asked Greg if he'd like to drive for a while. We'd been underway for only a few hours, and because we'd been out fairly late the night before and were up early to catch Mass before skipping town, the late morning
was a good time to switch it up. So, wouldn't you know, Greg decides to take it upon himself to ensure that we get to Queenstown as quickly as possible, pushing the car up to speeds around 120 km/h (roughly 70-75 mph), all the while knowing that the posted limit in the country is 100 km/h (I'm sure you all know where this going...).
Sure enough, he gets pulled over by a police car going in the opposite direction. Now what most of us in the States are thinking is that this is going to be painful, the cop usually has a bit of attitude that he or she will be asserting his or her authority, etc. But like most things down unda, this police officer was the opposite of what you'd expect: she was kind, smiling, and seemed genuinely irritated at the fact that she had to give us a ticket. In fact, she let us both take pictures and videos of her. Dare I say it was a pleasant experience...?
The next area we saw was the Mount Cook area. The approach to Southern Alps was long one, where there were many photo opportunities. We already
felt like we were headed into the land of the Lord of the Rings. We made it all the way up in the valley for a short hike that afforded even better views...I'm just bummed the lighting wasn't better (as we'd arrived in the late afternoon). There's not much to tell...the pictures say it all.
From there, we had another 2+ hours down to Queenstown and our last booked hotel.
That's about all for today.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0478s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
