Advertisement
Published: March 15th 2011
Edit Blog Post
This morning we woke to ducks quacking and view when we opened our camper curtain this was remarkable, something we had missed last night as we arrived so late.
We put on warm clothes and we’re thinking we might need thermals as the glacier ice coming off the water is FREEZING!
Matt wandered to the water’s edge to return to his childhood ways of skimming stones across the water, this proved to be prophetic as when we returned to the camper we learnt from one of our many tourists guides that “skimming stones across the shore of lake Tekapo” is one of the 101 MUST-DO’S for Kiwis! Fab!
We then headed off on a hike up Mount John, apparently a 3 hr trek! We did it in around 2.5 hours!! And man what a hike! Heading along the shoreline of Lake Tekapo we witnessed the change in colour of the lake's water as the sun continued to rise. Eventually turning a mind-blowing turquoise blue. Turns out this is created by something called "rock flour" which we learnt was caused by the glaciers in the headwaters of Tekapo grinding rock into fine dust. When the sun hits the water
it turns to this unique colour.
The walk proved to be quite taxing on our calf muscles, with frequent stops up the steeper parts of the hill, but was all worth the while. Seems that the long route (which was the one we took) was less travelled, we didn't actually encounter another person until we joined with the short track near the summit. Slackers! Haha.
The cafe at the summit was pleasant, although there weren't many options food-wise. Apparently this is due to the Christchurch earthquake having caused disruptions in food supply deliveries. All the same, it was a meal quickly devoured as we'd burnt up much energy on the hike there.
Walking back to the camp down the shorter track was mainly forest and came with a cooler wind and less taxing on the energy supplies as it was all downhill.
The rest of our afternoon was spent relaxing and tiki-touring around the Lake Tekapo township... with some time made for wine of course! We stopped in at the local church... apparently famous... very pretty and supposedly accommodates 3 separate denominations of Christianity even though it is on Anglican-owned land. Near the church is the
monument to the namesake of the region - James McKenzie. He was convicted of stealing 1000 sheep and the monument is of his dog, a border collie. Why they'd name a region after and commemorate a thief is beyond us though!
Tekapo has a permanent population of only 315 people, so the majority of the folk you see wandering the streets tend to be tourists, mainly European. So for this reason it is not difficult to find an unpopulated place to stop and admire the views. This is exactly what we did for dinner. We pulled up beside Lake Alexandrina, whipped up a quick but tasty meal and proceeded to soak it all in!
This IS our honeymoon! Total and utter relaxation!
Signing off - next stop Moeraki Boulders and Dunedin... oh! and lets not forget, Shag Point!!! Hehe
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 12; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0495s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
karen freshwater
non-member comment
I told you the water down there was the nost gorgeous turquiose color