Dunedin to Lake Tekapo

November 27th Dunedin to Lake Tekapo

With a dreary day send off, we left Dunedin but not before walking up the steepest street in the world. Baldwin Street definitely left the calves burning & for some meant they needed to have a smoke break! Haha Off from Dunedin, winding our way through ………. Wait for it……. Sheep farms & Fresian cow farms (dairy cows supplying all that milk to the Cadbury chocolate factory!). We travelled our way back to the east coast stopping at the Moeraki boulders. Amazingly round boulder rocks that appeared to be washed that way by the water but in fact were land based (some still noted in the sand cliffs). What lovely waves, wind & sun to go along with boulder hopping! We then carried on through towns of Hampden, Herbert, Kehane & Alma before stopping in Oamaru for a grocery stop. In Oamaru most of the old buildings are this stark white, built from Oamaru white stone. This stone was shipped all over the country for buildings in the early 1900’s. We needed to stalk up as Lake Tekapo & Mt Cook do not have grocery stores or ATMs for that matter . Continuing on our way, we meet up with the Waitaki River, another of the lakes that are this indescribable blue from glacial silt from the Pukaki glacier being reflected upon. Hopefully, the pictures do it justice as the water is bluer than the sky (more of this to come in!) Waitaki River has several hydroelectric dams along it, as one of NZ’s main sources of energy, definitely some of the cleanest. Aviemore Dam was quite clear from our quick photo stop as we stood amongst the windblown tussock grasses. We also passed Lake Benmore with Benmore dam being the largest dam in the country. As we head back into mountain country, this region is known as MacKenzie country, named after a Scotsman, James MacKenzie who basically liked to steal other people’s sheep & get money for it when reselling to others or for meat purposes. Eventually he got caught, attempted to escape from jail in Christchurch several times but was pardoned & went to his old sheep stealing ways & was shipped off to Australia (to live with many other convicts at the time ;). He never knew the area was named after him…… now that is a kiwi story of how to name the land. We passed through Otematata & Omarama, where we saw many glider planes being towed behind small planes. These gliders have no engine & can apparently travel up to 100km. Oh & this is where lupin country begins. All sorts of colours, heights, pockets everywhere!!. Not native to NZ, brought over for the wives of some of the shepherds to enhance their gardens……. & went a little too happy with the seeds! As we came into Lake Pukaki…… BAM!..... vibrant blue lake with Mt Cook & the Southern Alps range… Must admit it made me want to jump in it! We then traveled on to Lake Tekapo, our final destination for this lag, stopping at the Church of the Good Shepherd. This small, maybe 10 pews in total church was built in the 1900’s as a place for shepherds to repent their sins to the sheep…….. weird, but that is what is written in the stone dedication. The window behind the pulpit has a fantastic view of the Southern Alps in the background. After the hostel drop off, I reconnected with my friend, Fredriek, for a walk down to the ‘beach’. I use the term ‘beach’ loosely as it is just rocks, no sand to be found there. Due to the extreme hot sun, tiredness & groggy feeling of the day on the bus, I carefully waded my way out along the sharp, slippery rocks into the 8 degrees Celsius blue waters of Lake Tekapo for a crisp swim. Think first swim of the year in May in Lake Huron or when the ice has just melted off Twin Lakes for the first water ski of the season . Refreshing, invigorating, definitely worth it & of course, that means the Canadian girl is crazy! As I was in the water I could see the white clouds engulfing the nearby hills & grey skies coming from the south about to combine for some rain. Pretty cool to see it coming together from the viewpoint of the lake.