Blue Skies

After the last tow days of cloud and torrential rain we woke up to clear blue sky and a frost - a perfect winter's day. We decided to do the 40 minute or so Kea Point walk (no Keas were seen!). We drove the couple of km to the White Horse Campsite where the trails started from. When we had planned to have a camper van for this part oft he trip I had been looking at staying here. Think it would have been ok, had a clean toilet block but no showers.

We started the walk in the shadow of some mountains so it was a little cold, but we soon hit the sunshine and it warmed up. Sam was feeling a little under the weather so turned around about 3/4 of the way to Kea Point, the rest of us carried on. The path was icy in places with frozen puddles and fresh snow from yesterday (only half a cm or so) on the grass and path in the shade.

Whilst Eddie had complained about walking (as ever!) he admitted it was worth it when we got to Kea point. Had great views of Mount Cook, Mount Sefton and other mountains together with the huge lateral moraine of the Muller Glacier, the glacier itself and its terminal lake. after photos we headed back to the car and set off for Tekapo.

Sat nav was set for the Astro Cafe on the top of Mount St John at the Canterbury University observatory. We stopped at Peters Point to look back across Lake Pukaki at teh mountains around Mount Cook, said to be one of the best view points in NZ.The day was superb and the all round views from here excellent, another place where it was hard to control the number of photos taken. The blue ness of Lake Tekapo looked artificial. The food was good too, including a great curried cashew and carrot soup which we must try out at home (carrot, onion, garlic, chicken stock and cashew nuts and curry powder).

We headed down and the short trip into Tekapo and to the Lake Tekapo Hot Pools snd Tube Park. We paid for all 4 of us to do tubing for an hour and go into the hot pools and Sam booked an hours massage.

Straight to the tubing, where you slid down a snow slope on an inner tube (similar to the sort of thing you have at a waterpark). A school party were there so there weren't many tubes spare so Sam and I had to go down in a double - for the best as she was very nervous.

a carpet lift carried you and your tube up to the top. The kids shot up, Sam and I less convincing with her almost falling off and bringing me down to. Anyway we made it and down we went. It was fun, got up some good speed and went high round a banked corner before hitting some plastic mats put down to slow you down and bring you to a stop. These made the end of the ride quite bumpy and I only later learned it was best to lay across the tube rather than sit in it to be easier on bottom and back.

Sam went down 4 or 5 times before bailing out for her massage. The kida and I then went donw many times in various configurations 0 like trains holding each others feet, forward, backwards, spinning, straight, then in a ring with feet facing in. I sat out for a bit as the kids carried on. The school party had left after about 20 minutes and we had the place to ourselves. We had 2.30 written on our wristbands as our finish time when we arrived but given the lack of people we were allowed to just carry on and finally left about 3.30 after 2 and a quarter hours.

Ed braved a flying on his stomach slide towards the end and it went well until h banged his knee on one of the slowing mats, very painful. We decided this was a good tie to finish, but not wanting to end on a bad note we all did one more train down then went off to the hot pools.

Sam was already in them having finished her massage and wondering where we were. There were three pools, 36, 37 amd 39 degrees, the latter being adults only. We went in the coolest first then the next one. I also tried the hottest which was very relaxing. After about an hour we left and went to our motel then straight out to eat, hungry from our exertions. Went to a bar called Mackenzies. I had venison stew which was OK, but a bit tough in parts. Sam had three cuts of meat, 80g each - pork, beef and lamb. When it came the meat was cooking on a red hot stone and needed turning to be seared then pieces cutting off and left to cook on the stone before eating. Never seen that before and it didn't work that well. This was probably the worst meal we had had so far in NZ, very average.

Back to the motel, where the room was nice but had the tv oddly in the children's bedroom with no other one anywhere. We needed to watch the final of My Kitchen Rules so had to huddle on the beds to do so.Read more