Lake Tekapo

Thursday, 21 December 2017

Ruben was off from the clinic today, so we went to Lake Tekapo, about 1.75 hours from Waimate. We had heard that it was a very popular vacay spot for folks from Waimate to boat and jet ski and camp.


It is not only popular with locals, it is extremely popular with tourists! We were taken aback by the number of tourists--something we haven't encountered since we left Wellington. Tour busses and Juicy campervans and some particularly annoying have-it-my-way Americans in line in front of us at a lunch counter. We were a little embarrassed of our US accents following those folks!

The weather was lousy in Waimate, but better in Lake Tekapo Village. Still quite overcast, but only a few sprinkles of rain. We didn't get the full Southern Alps views because of the cloud cover, but it was gorgeous nonetheless and we're so glad we visited and did the Mount John Walkway track. I'm so glad we did! I took a lot of pictures here...

First view of the Southern Alps from Highway 8

I couldn't get over this glimpse of mountains. I miss them.

This is the view that every tour bus stops for on the way to Queenstown

Especially in tourist towns, smaller, local sodas are on offer

The Mount John summit walkway starts up into the trees

Pops out above two

After a steep and lengthy climb

From the summit the views of the lake reappear

The top of Mount John has a famous observatory with Hubble space telescopes

After a spin around the observatory buildings, the track continues

Ruben is not sure he wants to go the way I chose (the long way)

He did not talk me out of it

We were rewarded with views like this!

There are mountains back there behind the clouds and this sheep...

Do you see the sheep? The variety that lives on this hillside are not as white and wooly as we're used to in  town.
They have excellent camouflage.

The sun broke through the clouds and provided this view of the turquoise color of the lake.

Note the cloud bank beginning to ooze through this saddle

The track went briefly back into the woods

Town beginning to be visible in the distance

We like these soft, fuzzy pine trees

We took a break and watch these ducklings for a while

Note the cloudbank now

And now!

Driving home toward Twizel and more views of the Southern Alps