Lake Tekapo

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We arrived in Tekapo just after lunch where the whole town was covered in snow. It was also freezing. Quickly we walked up the street to our lodgings to dump our stuff and more importantly get into somewhere warm. We had chosen, as usual, the cheapest option but to our surprise it turned out the cheapest option isn't always the worst. I think I can safely say that the Tailor-made backpackers is the nicest and most welcome place we have stayed in New Zealand so far. When we arrived we were welcomed by the owner who was incredibly friendly, gave us tons of information and advice and even gave Helen a rose that he had just pruned from the grounds. Its always nice when your first experience somewhere goes well, immediatly we knew we were going to like Tekapo.

The town itself isn't very big and its main draw is the lake and the surrounding landscape but I can assure you that there is much more to Tekapo than the scenery, namely the relaxed atmosphere and the friendliest of the few locals that live there. As I have said it was snowing when we arrived and the sky was grey grey grey, we couldn't see much past our nose on the first day but as the photos illustrate that soon changed by the following morning. The lake as you can see is stunning and due to a sediment in the water gives a distinct turqoise colour which combined with the surrounding mountains makes for a spectacular landscape. The local Church sits on the bank of the lake and makes for a postcard perfect setting, not suprising then that it is a favourite location for weddings, we visited the Church on our first day as it seemed the only thing to do but had to see it again with clearer skys so visited it again on Thursday. As Church's go its hardly an architectural triumph but its certainly quaint and looks fantastic set against the backdrop of the lake.

As we had been blessed with beautiful clear skies and a white canvas we decided to take a walk up to the summit of Mount John to get a new perspective on Tekapo and the surrounding area. The walk only took us an hour or so and wasn't particularly steep making the climb relatively easy. Except for the occasional slip on the snow we made it to the top unscathed albeit somewhat cold and red nosed. The views were amazing, I have never seen anything quite so stunning, we had a complete 360 degree panorama to marvel at from which we could see lake Tekapo in its entirety, lake Pukaki and it was even clear enough to see New Zealand's famous Mount Cook! At the summit there is a cafe where after taking in the views we filled up on hot chocolate and carrot cake and then slowly tramped back down the mountain.

After a quick dinner back at the hostel we decided to head up to the local hot pools to star gaze and soak our tired legs. $32 dollars later we were submerged in relaxing waters where if the place hadn't had to shut we would have probably stayed all night. Unfortunatly the steam and the brightness of the full moon obscured the view of the night sky but we were still able to pick out the southern cross shining brightly down upon us which was pretty cool. As it turned out we had had quite a full day and by the time we were kicked out of the pools we were both more than ready to hit the sack. As you can imagine we both slept soundly.

Next stop, back to Christchurch and then onto the north Island. We'll keep you posted.

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