On to Tekapo and the Southern Alps

Nasturtiums for breakfast, with the omelette.

Believe it or not we also had yet another fruit - stewed rhubarb, with orange. We are debating whether rhubarb actually counts as a fruit. Possibly not as it doesn't carry the seed, as far as our knowledge extends.

Today was going to be mostly driving to our next destination, Tekapo.

One or two interesting sites along the way.  Quite a few of their rivers are 'braided' - the river bed is very wide, but full of shingle banks that divide the river up into separate streams, hence the term braided. The Rakaia Is one of the best examples. 

Of course, that all important stop for coffee and cake at a farm shop just outside a town called Geraldine. 

First views of the Southern Alps.

Stop for a reconnoiter (where on earth are we?)

The sign plate showed a lot of the mountains names except the one we had actually heard of - Mount Cook, or where we actually were. Eric is looking bemused by the fact that we are looking at the wrong mountain range if we are expecting to see Mt Cook.

Arrive at Lake Tekapo - our first impression was that it was a filled in quarry, or a very manufactured landscape. The area is very barren, so this may be why, or it may be because the whole place starting off as a result of the hydro-electric scheme.  There are eight in this area. Can't really say we were particularly impressed although it was very blue - a bit like the water you find in a disused quarry back home. The underlying geology is limestone, so this may have something to do with it, or the blue colour could be from glacial meltwater and rock flour, similar to the ones we saw in Canada. Would need to do a bit more research for a more definitive answer!

An alternative view.

After dropping our stuff off at the B&B we headed down the road to another lake, Pukaki, and to check out the visitor centre. 

Where's the lunch? Lake Pukaki had an information shop, but really it was mostly selling Salmon, and only salmon.

Eric befriends the local Tahr (well not so local as donated to the local NZ people by an Englishman from Woburn in early 1900s, and they are originally from the Himalayas.) We are beginning to form the impression that if the Victorians had had more time they would have wiped New Zealand clean and recreated it in the image of the Home Counties. 

Tekapo township from Mt Johnson Observatory.  It's one of the globally established Dark Sky reserves like the ones back in the UK at Kielder and Brecon. Views from up here were really good.

These clouds were spilling over the mountain tops - our guide on the penguin tour yesterday called them 'spilt milk', you can see why.

Mmmm. Grand view from this observatory place - flipping cold though. 

From here you can easily see why the area was used for a number of the scenes in Lord of the Rings, especially when there are dark clouds making the the place look very dramatic. The mythical Plains of Rohan are somewhere around here.

More spilt milk. 

Lake Tekapo from the Observatory. Notice that there is a cafe on top of the mountain along with various telescopes and monitoring stations. You are probably wondering which was the main reason for driving all the way up here. They close the road up here at 5pm.  You can do night stargazing tours, but as it was cloudy we thought that it wouldn't be good value for money, and we would have needed an extra four layers of clothing!

The elusive (for photo ops) Australian Harrier - we persevere but it's still a bit far away for a good piccie. It seems to be the most commonly seen bird along the highways, but must have amazing eyesight. It disappears over the horizon even when we take the camera out of its bag when sat in the car. 

Just as well we didn't go stargazing. On our return to the B&B later that same evening we had torrential rain, and a sprinkling of snow overnight.