The most incredible thing about this place was the lake. You get the most PERFECT unobstructed view of the Southern Alps, Mount Cook against a backdrop rolling hills across the most ridiculously turquoise Lake Tekapo. Seriously - it's impossibly blue and when the weather is clear, it's just jaw-droppingly stunning. It totally looks like a postcard - I could hardly believe it.
I was a bit concerned when I left Christchurch because it was grey, cloudy and raining. My main objective in Tekapo was to take a scenic flight over the famous glaciers and Mount Cook and just chill out. I got increasingly worried that I wouldn't be able to do the flight because of the weather, but when I arrived at my hostel, I was told that the weather would be better the next day, so I decided to take the risk and wait. So on the day I arrived, I just grabbed my book, hit up the supermarket and sat by the lake having a picnic and reading. For HOURS!!! The downtime was welcome after spending so much time with my friend's family and being a tourist in Christchurch. I spent so long just staring across the lake at this incredible backdrop wondering how a country could be THAT beautiful. When it started to get chilly, I headed back to hang out at the hostel instead.
In Christchurch, I mainly met Germans - here it was Chinese. EVERYWHERE. So crazy. I still got to kick back and read my book in peace though and it was nice not to be thinking about time or work or schedules or clients or...anything! The hostel was on the lakefront and the view was simply stunning. I was hoping for more of a sunset, but it was way too cloudy. I got the cutest surprise though when I saw a couple of wild rabbits hopping about in the garden - SUPER CUTE!!! Awwwwwwww!!!!!
This hostel literally had one of the comfiest beds I had ever slept in. The pillow was super soft, the duvet even softer and I slept like a log. The next morning was GORGEOUS. Just gorgeous. That was it - I decided to shell out the NZ$300 for a scenic flight over the MacKenzie basin. It was what I had stopped there for anyway, so it would have been a crime not to do it. It turned our to be just 2 of us and we got a much longer flight than usual over Mount Cook (the highest peak in Australasia at 3,764m), 150 other peaks of the Southern Alps. the Tasman, Fox and Franz Josef glaciers and of course the stunning Lake Tekapo. We were both literally speechless as we took in this breathtakingly phenomenal scenery.
Numpty here though forgot my camera. Well actually, I was charging the battery the night before and then forgot to put it back in. I was in the plane and my heart literally sank. THANK GOD FOR SMARTPHONES!!!!! And mine isn't actually too bad for taking pictures, as you can see in the pic above. It was cool though because the German girl put her pics on my SD card when we got back so I had a copy of them all. She was snapping away frantically the whole time bless her. Naturally I was grateful. but when I actually checked out the pictures, they really weren't any better than the ones I had taken on my phone! HAHAHHA! Her camera was mediocre at best and she hadn't used the zoom at all, so all the pictures had the window frame or wings of the plane in them! DOH!
It was really amazing though. My time here was super chilled out and it was exactly what I needed before I hit Queenstown and then manicness of being a tourist would start up again!The flight was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. If ever you get down there, I highly recommend doing it. Nowhere else in the world has nature like this.
The Tekapo pics are already up on FB - the ones of my scenic flight will be up soon in their own special album so stay tuned!
xoxo
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