Lake Tekapo has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The lake itself is a brilliant blue as it is fed from the glaciers and it was a pleasure to wake up and be able to glimpse this lake through the trees, and walk and swim the dogs there. The other bonus of the NZMCA park at Tekapo is that there is a large off leash dog park right next door, so it made exercising the dogs so easy.
Once that was all done, we decided we would bike into the Tekapo township for a bit of sight seeing. Unfortunately, when Bruce got my bike off the rack we found that the back wheel was so buckled it would have to be replaced. The nature of the damage indicated it was probably deliberate by parties unknown, so it was very disappointing. There was no bike repair outlet in Tekapo so we had to break camp and take the motorhome.
First stop was the Church of the Good Shepherd, built in the 1930’s. It was a very beautiful building, although quite a small one, and one that was over-run with tourists. Bruce and I sat inside for a while and just took it all in. The view out from the front windows, beyond the pulpit was spectacular and distracting, so I am not sure how the vicar got anyone to listen to what he was saying. Unfortunately it also interuppted our contemplation to see tourists walking in front of the window – quite intrusive.
You cannot take photos inside the church, so hopefully the photo down the side of the church should give an indication of the view.
A short walk away is the statue dedicated to the working dogs of the MacKenzie country. He stands on a plinth at a level above the planting so he stands tall and proud.
The township of Tekapo itself is small and compact and is limited to either cafes, pubs or gift shops. We stopped for a coffee and a quick wander but there was not a lot there to interest us. Tekapo has great hot pools (so we have been told) but we elected to go up Mt John before travelling to Geraldine for the night, so we didn’t get a soak.
The road to Mt John is deceptive and at one stage Bruce thought we must have the wrong road as it travels on the flat around hills rather than upwards as expected. However, we soon came to a gate where we had to pay $8 entrance fee and the road from there was all uphill – very steeply uphill. It was predominantly one way with only a few places where you could pull over so it got a bit exciting at times when there were vehicles coming the other way. I have never seen a road quite like it.
Once at the top it was very, very windy. One poor tourist had worn a dress and was having the greatest difficulty controlling it! It was also noticeably cooler up there. However the view was spectacular (there is that word again). We would have liked to do a night time observatory tour but unfortunately the forecast was for cloud cover tonight.
Nearby is Lake Alexandrina and it has a totally different appearance to the brilliant blue of Lake Tekapo as it is a drainage lake (from the surrounding hills), so it is a grey green colour.
The hills remain brown and barren, and even thought there is a statue dedicated to a sheep dog, the reality is we saw very little livestock of any sort, let alone sheep. If it had been there, I am not sure what it would have eaten.
We inched our way down the mountain again and hit the road for Geraldine.
Away From Home NZ 