New Zealand Travel Diary Part III

Okay, so this is not going to be a wordy post, because I want to give the pictures room to speak.

So, accompanied by the seemingly neverending line of the Southern Alps, we headed deeper into the heart of the South Island. Then we turned a corner and I had to pinch myself. This is approximately what we saw (this is obviously taken after we had left the camper and gone down to the shore). And no, I didn’t edit this in any way, the water is like that. The intense colour is due to light-reflecting micro-organisms or something along those lines in the water.

From Lake Tekapo we went along the turquoise canal that connects Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. I think it’s part of some hydro-electric scheme or something, which is very cool. We were heading to a camping spot on the eastern shore of Lake Pukaki. As the journey progressed, we could see part of Aoraki Mount Cook appear to our right, across the canal. It was shrouded in cloud, but that cleared later on and remained completely clear. It’s quite a lovely mountain, and I took many many MANY pictures of it.

Aoraki is the Maori name, and the combination of the two names is increasingly used for the mountain. When we came upon the lake we turned right along the shore. Pukaki has the exact same very intense turquoise colour as Tekapo, but here there were more rocks and less flowers. Not that it wasn’t absolutely stunning! I think Lake Pukaki/Aoraki Mount Cook is probably my favourite place of all that we went to.

We found the camping spot after only one false turn, which turned out to actually just be a wee detour. It was breathtaking. We were sheltered by a few trees (mostly birch, and a couple eucalyptus), and had an open view of the lake and mountains. Below us was a very rocky (I guess I could call it bouldery) beach, behind us evergreen trees. We had dinner outside, as per usual, with lake-cooled lovely Mac’s Sassy Red brew.

The sunset needs no further words.....

And, I got up in the middle of the night and sat for a bit on the moonlit shore – and took a couple of pictures of the moon above. The big boulder I sat on, was a fast favorite because it had little steps and holds seemingly carved into it, so it made a great seat for more than one person.

Then of course, I got up early too, being WAY to excited by the beauty of it all to sleep properly, and sat on the big boulder to enjoy the sunrise (this picture is from before sunrise).