Blogs from Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 13

Lakes & Mountains Left Nat & Ryan at Wood End Beach and drove through Rangiora and Oxford (lots of English place names over here) on the scenic drive to Mount Cook National Park. We stopped at Fairlie for lunch and then set up camp at Lake Tekapo, at a great little campsite with stunning views of the lake. The water was a perfect turquoise against the brilliant white of the snowy mountains. We walked along the lake's beach to the famous Church of the Good Shepherd, which had a beautiful view of the lake from its windows (bit different to Low Hill's view Rosie!). It was unfortunate timing as we coincided with several Japanese tour buses and irritatingly they kept wandering into our photos! Jase got his revenge by spoiling a Japanese group photo by naughtily ... read more

Lake Tekapo is a very small town situated around a beautiful lake with mountains all around. Our hostel was right on the lake front and had the best views of all those I've been to. It had a cosy log fire in the lounge and had a cat called Neffe which I fell in love with. It was so nice to have cuddles by the fire, she really made me feel at home! So anyway, after a lot of non stop travelling, late nights and early mornings it was great to be able to relax for a couple of days here. Me and my friend Vikki decided to climb Mount John to get views of the town, lake and mountains. It was very cold with ice and snow around which made the walk interesting! I ... read more

jesus christ, this travel blog stuff takes a lot of time! Gonna cut out the rants, its costing me a fortune and I think I´m talking complete bollocks. So after Queenstown, and a few days of partying it was back on the magical magic bus to be magiced up the east coast. First stop Dunedin, then lake Tekapo, then back to christchurch. Quick thoughts: Dunedin, is a student town and can be a blast. After 4 nights in Queenstown, i couldnt even face the brewery tour of Speights! Thats a sign. It was easily the coldest place in NZ so far. As I was finding with my lightspeed trip of NZ, arriving here at 2ish, with 3 hrs more light and leaving the next morning at 7.30ish, you cant really get a feel for a place! ... read more

Day 6- Tuesday 24th April Left Lake Tekapo mid-morning. The scenery was quite rugged, quite like Scottish Highlands in areas. Lots of mountains and lakes! Snow on the tips of the mountains. The colours were autumn colours-the rusty oranges, yellows and reds, browns, and purples. We had a pitstop at a beautiful lake along the way with mountains in the distrance. If it had been clear, we would have seen the topless Mount Cook! Near Twizel, the landscape was more of a plain, with the mountains surrounding in the far distance. As we neared Omaru, the scenery changed and became greener, more rolling hills. We went to Omaru public gardens for lunch and had a wander around. The gardens were quite picturesque with different areas of planting within it. There was also a small aviary. ... read more

From Lake Pukaki we drove a little further north where we climbed Mount John, overlooking Lake Tekapo, and got some great views of Mount Cook and the Southern Alps. We then headed towards Christchurch, where we caught up on our diaries at Starbucks (regretably) and waited for 7.30pm - If you didn't know this, Kiwi's love rugby, and they're pretty good at it too! We went to a local bar, The Holy Grail, to watch the Christchurch Crusaders vs Wellington Hurricanes. Christchurch won, thankfully, as the bar was bursting with them and their swords! We stayed for the first half of NZ vs Australia (rugby league) but left after the referee started getting abused for being a "pom!" ha ha. (actually beacuse it was very late and we had to drive for 90mins!) ... read more