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Published: February 8th 2007
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Morning View
How awesome is it to wake up to this view? (I mean the scenery although Glyn is looking very dashing today) One of the things we wanted to try and do during our 4 week road trip was get up early enough one day to watch the sun rise. As we were in such a beautiful setting at Lake Clearwater, we thought that this place might provide us with the ideal opportunity. We set the alarm for 4.30am and found ourselves cursing loudly as it went off in the dead of night. We had decided on 4.30am as I had woken up a couple of nights ago at 5.30am only to find it was light outside. That meant that sun rise must be around 5am-ish, surely. Well, in this case, no! We waited for about half an hour but nothing happened. It was still dark enough outside to see the occasional star twinkling through the breaks in the clouds but that was all. Seeing as how the sky was a bit too overcast for a decent sunrise anyway, We gave up and went back to sleep. Hey ho.
When we woke up again, it was a much more civilised time of day, the skies had cleared and there was glorious sunshine pouring down on us giving us a chance to see
Don't Shoot!
Looks like if the hunters can't shoot at the wildlife, they just shoot at the signs! just what a great view we had from our campsite. We chatted briefly to a local lady who kindly offered to let us use her canoe for a trip out on to the water but given that neither Glynn nor I have had any experience in boats, it seemed like a bad idea. Still, what a nice offer to make to a complete stranger!
We packed up and headed back down the gravel road until we hit tarmac again. Shortly afterwards, we popped in to the Mount Somers General Store which we had passed by on the way to Edoras yesterday. It had that quaint old fashioned look to it to the extent that I could almost imagine the Waltons popping in for their weekly groceries. The store itself was half mini-market and half museum with of all sorts of antiques on display amongst the groceries. The store owner was very friendly and gave us loads of info about the area. It seems that we've yet to meet anyone on the South Island who isn't friendly - excellent!
Moving on, we made a stop in a small town called Geraldine where the Rough Guide had recommended a few
What's in Store?
The oldy worldy Mount Somers General Store. Cute, eh? places of interest. Alas the chocolate factory was still closed for the holidays but we did get to see the world's larget jersey (I can tell you're impressed) which I would say could comfortably be worn by at least 20 people. Then, in the back room of the same shop was a novelty that we weren't quite prepared for. Hanging on the walls of this big room was a full reproduction of the Bayeux Tapestry (the one that tells the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, for those of you who haven't heard of it). The only thing was that this version was made completely of small bits of metal from old knitting machine parts (that's the link to the whole giant jersey thing). The man who made it came in to tell us all about it and we were stunned to learn that it had taken a whopping 25 years to complete it. That's dedication for you! The man was also a keen puzzler and had created an alphametic puzzle book that he had for sale. Knowing that I was getting bored of my sudoku puzzles, Glynn bought me a copy of the book although I have
Giant Jumper
How's that for a big jumper? to confess that I didn't understand a word of the instructions the man gave me on how to do them! If you fancy finding out more, check out his website at www.1066.co.nz.
Leaving Geraldine behind us, we drove over to Lake Tekapo, possibly the bluest lake in the world. The water was a kind of cloudy turquoise colour and with the uninterrupted views of Mount Cook in the distance, it was easy to see why this place was a favourite stop for the many many tour buses that rolled up alongside us. There was a lovely little stone church by the water's edge that looked as if it had been built over a century ago in some remote parish in the Scottish highlands and someone had simply picked it up and dropped it down in this beautiful setting. Unfortunately there were just too many people around so we'll no doubt stop by again tomorrow when it's hopefully a bit quieter.
We didn't pass any likely looking places to camp for the night but consulting our map book, we spotted a small lake on a scenic reserve about 10km away that looked like it might be a contender. We
Bayeux Tapestry Revisited
This was an amazing labour of love and the guy in the fluffy jumper is the one who spent 25 years making it all! got lucky and were soon parked up at the Lake Alexandrina DOC campsite for $6 per night. Aside from the slightly sloping ground, the campsite was just lovely with mountain views and another clear freshwater lake. At the water's edge we were greeted by a gang of hungry ducks waiting to be fed and we happily obliged. As we threw in some bread for them all to enjoy, a family of ducklings swam over to join in the feeding frenzy and it was amusing to watch the little ducks fighting with the big ones for the juiciest chunks (and they always won too!) Another great find and a great place to stay :-)
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