Time is ticking away. I spent some awesome days in Pareora and did things I never thought I’d do. Queenstown is waiting though, and thus it’s time to hit the road! Since I don’t want to start working without having seen anything, I planned some stops along the way. First up: a night in Lake Tekapo.
It was an easy drive to the lake and I’d already seen most of it. But then I turned around the corner…
My jaw dropped and my foot hit the brakes. Amazing! From here Lake Tekapo wasn’t far away. The town was actually bigger than I’d imagined, but the places of interest are easy to find. Online I’d booked a cheap ticket to the Tekapo Springs hot pools. Since it’s the shoulder season, the pool was almost deserted. There’s the cruisy 36 degrees, the favourite 38 degrees and the boiling 40. It was cloudy and chilly outside, so the pools were a good option.
After soaking until I looked like a wrinkly grandmother I decided to hike up Mt. John. There’s an hour-long walk to the top, where you can visit the observatory and a café. The path is really good and goes through a forest that looked all yellow at this time of year. At the top I had a quick hot chocolate. The clouds were moving in and rain was in the air. Unfortunately this made the view a bit less spectacular than I imagine it could be. I almost ran down again and made it to my hostel just before the rain started.
There was a fire going. A perfect place to wait till the rain is over. Later on I made my way towards town. There is an immensely popular church and a statue of a dog you need to see. It’s on all the tourist information about Lake Tekapo, so without going there your stay really doesn’t count. There is a beautiful walkway along the lakeshore. The mountains in the distance have some snow on them. The last sunshine of the day is popping through the clouds and gives some areas an orange glow.
In the evening I venture outside once more. Lake Tekapo is known for good stargazing. Maybe the moon was too bright. Maybe I just went too early. Or maybe there was too much light polution and I should have gotten further away from the hostel. I didn’t see the sky that I saw on all those pphotos of this area.