Advertisement
The backdrop to the lake
Also the view from our campsite Our route from Christchurch to Wanaka And so it was, on a sunny, but distinctly autumnal day, we found ourselves starting on the 2 day drive from Christchurch to Wanaka. We had decided that the sleepover point of the journey would be Lake Tekapo, which, aside from being conveniently midway placed, is also reputed to be incredibly beautiful.
Our mode of transport, was, and still is, a van. Not, i hasten to add, a camper van. But an actual van, which has merely been modified so you can sleep in it. I'd hate for you to think that we are wrapped up nice and snug in our insulated, purpose made camper, when we are, in fact, not. Still, it all adds to the enjoyment i suppose, in any case, it rarely gets below -6 this time of year.
Enough self pity. The van does have some admirable features, namely, heaps of camping gear left by the previous owner, and an electric adaptor in place of the radio. But how? I hear you cry, can you listen to music if there is a plug socket where the radio should be? The van also came with a portable stereo, so i bought an F.M. transmitter for
my ipod and the problem was solved. Magic.
The best part about the whole thing, is that, about 6 months ago, the engine had needed replacing. This had cost the previous owner, close to 1000 GBP and i had paid less than that to take the whole thing off his hands. Business well done.
We set off from Christchurch at about 2:00pm, hoping to get out of the city before rush hour, which we did manage to do. Obviously, with my continuing inability to drive, that responsibility was all Sarah's. I'm told the van is easy enough to drive, but the positioning of the gear stick ( protruding from behind the steering wheel) makes life difficult. particularly when you think you have changed gear, but have merely put the windscreen wipers on turbo mode.
We made good time, after leaving the city. The roads were nearly perfectly straight and flat, and would be until we turned to go further inland, and had to deal with the mountain passes. Before long we came to a small, conspicuously unimportant town called Geraldine. I knew i had been there before, but could not for the life of me think why,
Geraldine
The cheese and ice cream shop. so we stopped to investigate. It all came flooding back; i had been driven there by a bus driver who had an unseemly preoccupation with cheese, and this town was his idea of heaven, because the small cheese and ice cream shop, does do some rather good cheese. We stocked up on a garlic and chive variety, and continued on our way.
The scenery changed, slowly but surely as we moved inland. Going from flat plains, whose arable fields were bare, and then into more rugged terrain where sheep grazed in their hundreds. (There are nearly 10 times more sheep than people in NZ.) And then we moved into the mountains themselves, the tallest with a light dusting of snow at the summit, but most still waiting for winter to arrive. We then drove back down the pass, and into Lake Tekapo, it was dusk by the time we arrived so we found the camp site as quickly as possible, made supper, (pasta) and went to bed. The following morning we went for a short walk down to the lake to see if Lake Tekapo's reputation for beauty was well deserved. I've put a small selection of photos of
Geraldine
Sarah and model cows the Lake on this blog so you can judge for yourself. Just bear in mind that i am a crap photographer, and that a camera never carries the full weight of distant scenery.
We continued on to Wanaka at 10am, wanting to get there before dark, to make settling in that much easier. We made it in good time and went to find a camp site. We set up home in the Kiwi Backpackers camp site on the far side of town, before heading back into town for a look round.
Wanaka is a small unobtrusive town on the banks of a lake of the same name. We arrived in the middle of one of the two dead seasons that most small towns in NZ endure. In high summer the population swells as a result of sailors, kayakers, water-skiers and hikers, as well as people who come to sky dive over the lake, stay a night or two, then disappear. It then goes quiet in the town throughout autumn, before the crowds return for the ski season, followed by a quiet spring, and then back to summer. The base population of Wanaka is 3,500, but I've been told
that at peak seasons this can increase to 17,000.
This is where Sarah and i will stay until Christmas time, when we will leave to go travelling NZ in full. Consequently, any blogs following this one, will not so much be 'travel blogs' but 'what's happening in Wanaka blogs'. We'll do our best to keep them interesting.
Two things regarding messages/comments. Apparently TravelBlog have been having problems with uploading messages to the bloggers themselves, so if you have been trying but they haven't been sending, thanks anyway. Also, if you post us a message, rather than add a comment, it will not show up on the blog, you have to add a comment for it to show up, so don't think we're being rude by ignoring messages, we just cant publish them.
Sarah would also like to pass on our congratulations to Joanne and Craig, who were married over last weekend.
And now? We're off to explore Wanaka, I'll let you know if we find anything of note.....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 6; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0519s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Daffy
non-member comment
Waking up in Tekapo is a great picture, fortunately we can't see the smell!