Lake Pukaki

Today started at 5:30am for us with a chilly couples trip to the pit toilets, cause lets be honest, we were both scared of axe murderers. But with the temperature at -3 and a full moon lighting up the campsite, our 5:30am bathroom trip turned into a 5:30am icy puddle jumpy frenzy as Jo put her new gumboots to the ultimate test. But the freezing conditions got the better of us and we clambered back into bed only to wake a few hours later to Lake Alexandrina putting on a real sunrise show for us. It was just us and one other person in this eery place, surrounded by fishing huts and row boats. But it also meant we had front row seats to one of the most beautiful sunrises we’d ever seen! A perfect way to start the day and with a couple of showers, coffees and warm croissants later, we were back on the road to the small town of Tekapo. Where we headed for 'The Church of the Good Shepherd'.
This was a quaint old church situated at the southern end of Lake Tekapo. It is an extremely popular tourist destination but we got there just before opening time, which gained us access minutes before the bus loads of tourists arrived. We only managed to get a few snaps before we were over run by the larger groups of tourists. Apparently in the busier seasons they can get up to 4000 people there a day! Crazy!

After a bit of exploring and plenty of James' "little people" photos (Photos taken from extremely far away), we began our search for more coffee and a 360 degree view over Lake Tekapo. We found the coffee (and some cheesecake) along with our 360 degree view at the summit of Mount John in the form of an incredible cafe/observatory. Mount John has an elevation of 1,030 meters and is the home of the Mount John University Observatory, and offers such incredible views over the glistening blue lake and snow covered mountain ranges. We marvelled at the enormity of everything around us and spent quite sometime up here.

We then got back on the road and headed to a place called Twizel. Twizel is one of the main towns where we could buy groceries, refill our fresh water and best of all, dump our 'waste'. Dumping the waste proved to be quite simple yet unique for all of us. For James and I it was a becoming a man moment apparently, and we liked to think the girls were watching on in admiration, but sadly I don't think thats possible in a situation like that. We found the 'dump station' and did our business, so to speak, before getting back on the road. We doubled back about 10 minutes to another lake called Lake Pukaki. Lake Pukaki had raving reviews for it's freedom camping so it was decided we'd stay there tonight. And that we did. We set up camp and were able to break out the camp chairs and BBQ just in time for a beautiful sunny BBQ lunch outside.

It wasn't long before the cameras were back out and we began chasing the sunset across the lake. With a back drop of white capped mountains and crystal clear water, the sunset was absolutely incredible. But as the sun dropped, so did the temperature, and it wasn't long before we retired back to our little homes. It was butter chicken for dinner and this time we had James, Jess and little Hudson over. Then it was readings and a slide show of the days photography efforts before another couples bathroom trip and a slow climbed up our ladder into bed. The days have been short but still quite exhausting. Grateful for sunshine, waterproof boots and hand sanitiser after today.

Tomorrow we're taking on New Zealand's largest mountain, Mount Cook. Bring on the adventure and the possible chance of coffee at the top.

Asher ☺️Read more