Happy New Year! (Campervan Day 7)

We started this morning in Lake Tekapo with a pretty steep climb up Mt. John at 8:45am.  The views looking out over the lake and surrounding mountains were beautiful!  At the top there was the Astro Cafe which runs into the Earth and Sky Observatory at night.  We had some coffee and some banana loaf while admiring the views.  We were the first to sign the guestbook in 2011 and didn’t have to worry about the order the date was written!  We then walked the circuit around the top of the mountain to make sure we saw it from all angles.  Then we sat and waited for a bit for the clouds to lift so we could see a glimpse of snow-capped Mt. Cook in the distance (where we were headed today).  We met a woman up there while waiting who had just come from there the day before and she said the views on the drive were much nicer than anything we were seeing from up there!  So we took her advice and left immediately.  The walk (run for me) back down the mountain only took about 15min where the way up too 40!  This woman was right, the views were stunning driving around bright blue lake Pukaki seeing Mt. Cook (NZ’s highest peak) in the background with clear blue skies. 

The sun was shining making it nice and warm when we arrived in Mount Cook National Park.  We met our glacier kayaking guide and geared up to head out to Mueller Lake.  The wind was blowing pretty hard against our direction of travel so we were getting splashed a bit by 2 degrees Celsius water.  The views of the mountains were spectacular and we got to see the edge of Mueller glacier where it met the lake.  After paddling up the lake as far as we could go, we hopped out of the boats and walked to some other clear blue pools undisturbed by the flowing water.  There we watched the face of the mountain in front of us, seeing and hearing a couple of avalanches since it was such a warm day.  Tom (our guide) chipped us off our own samples of the 6000-10,000 year old ice!  We also sampled the pristine drinking water running into the lake we were paddling on.  It was nice and cold, crisp and delicious!  By the time we were paddling back to the shore we’d started on, almost all of the clouds had moved so we had great clear views of Mt. Cook and some of the other snowy mountain faces around us.  From there, we began our drive even farther south, stopping briefly in Twizel for some fuel, with the goal destination of Wanaka, but we’ll see where the road takes us!  No booking or plans of a place to sleep tonight.

Astro Cafe at Mt. John overlooking Lake Tekapo

Mt. Cook in the distance

Campervan Day 6

Today we started out with a plan from the day before.  We had purchased tickets to the International Arctic Center in Christchurch, where you can experience Antarctica.  We started with the little blue penguin feeding at 10:30.  They were pretty cute waddling and swimming around.  All are being rehabilitated or just cared for after injuries and will live there for the rest of their lives.  Some penguins haven’t mastered eating while swimming, so they wait until the feeding in the water is over with and wait to get fed on land.  There were a lot of different observation angles and you could even see them in their little bedrooms (of which they each have their own and go back to the same one) if they went to have a nap after eating.  We ended up with 94 penguin pictures after that attraction.  Some of the other attractions were a storm room, where you got bundled up (with a warm coat only) to go into.  It was -8 Celsius before the storm hit and brought a wind chill and then it was  FREEZING, not something you needed to experience for a very long time, especially with shorts on!  There was an ice slide inside which provided great entertainment watching kids go down too close together and knocking each other over again at the bottom.  This one little kid went down and while leaning forward getting readying to stand up, his larger father came flying down behind him and knocked him flat on his face again.  Poor kid...but it was pretty hilarious to watch.  We also went on a Hagglund ride to simulate what it would be like crossing the snow and ice including crevasses and steep inclines and declines as well as a lake crossing at the end.  The ride was in the actual vehicle, but on a dirt course setup out behind the center.  Another main attraction was a 4D tourist voyage to Antarctica via ship from South America.  You get up close and personal with the ocean, wildlife and glaciers, even splashed from a few.  Strangely enough, a large chunk of ice comes through the boat and it sinks, filling the roomm with bubbles at the end...then on the screen it says no lives were lost...but we never did resurface..hmm...we made a pit stop at Pak N Save to restock our grocery supply and are now on our way (about a 3 our drive) to Lake Tekapo, where we’ll spend New Years Eve under some of the darkest skies in New Zealand!

We arrived in Lake Tekapo just before 6pm and saw the sun shining on the blue lake with the mountains in the background.  The whole landscape is beautiful and the campsite it up on the hill so it overlooks the lake through the trees.  We walked around the the edge of the lake on our way back into “town” for dinner at Pepe’s.  We had some very yummy pizza!  Camping seems like a pretty popular activity for New Year’s since they are completely booked on all sites, and have sent overflow down to the gravel area by the lakeside!  Although, at 20 minutes to midnight there is not too much commotion!  Will most-likely be a quick happy new year and then off to bed!  Early morning tomorrow to hike up Mt. John before driving to Mt. Cook (NZ’s tallest) and doing some glacier sea kayaking. 

Fun fact about day 6....we hit the 1000km mark in our travels and Mom has taken her 1000th picture!

Campercan Day 5

It was another summery-feeling day today!  We walked to Cathedral Square in downtown Christchurch to visit the information center to get some advice on the best way to see the city.  We were trying to decide between a walking tour, bike tour, bus tour, or the grand tour which used all modes of city transport including the tram, punting boat, and gondola.  We ended up doing part of a self-guided walk and got a quick lunch from a greek place before we departed at 2pm on a 1964 London double decker bus for a tour of the city, some of the older homes like Mona Vale and Deans house, and Sumner beach and Lyttleton harbor.

 Earlier in the morning, after coming out of the visitors’ center, we heard a street performer guy speaking through his microphone getting set up and ready to start his show so we decided to stay and watch.  He advertised as the show as being comedy, magic and doing freaky stuff with his body.  He was from Scotland and so he changed into his costume of this goth-looking kilt, knee high leather boots and some random spanish bullfighting jacket.  His first act was to make a burning cigarette disappear inside of some woman’s sweater he borrowed from the crowd...pretty impressive.  Next he blew up a rubber glove with air on top of his head until it exploded (after about 4 tries)...not as impressive.  Next he swallowed an entire 4 ft long skinny inflated balloon...just plain weird!  And his finale was having a random good-sized man from the crowd stand on his chest while he was laying topless on a pile of broken glass...just crazy really.  When he stood up, some of the glass was actually stuck into his back and he was bleeding from a couple places, ouch.  Oh and he also made this cute little girl copy him for a little while and paid her $5.  He believed his show was worth $5 and asked everyone to put that into his bag if you enjoyed the show, or if not a couple of gold coins.  I’m sure he came away with a decent amount of money for doing some pretty random things.  For a pretty small square, there were about 4 or 5 different kinds of street performing or preaching going on at the same time!  I’d never seen so many different acts in such a small space! 

After our bus tour we did a bit of shopping, although there was not much open still at 5pm, then decided to do another bit of the city walk, along Cambridge Terrace along the Avon river to the botanic gardens.  Christchurch is known as New Zealand’s garden city (and most English city) and even won the world title, I believe in 1996, to prove it.  I’m pretty sure we now have photos of almost every plant in the garden!  Luckily there were also some adorable ducklings with their mother playing in the Peacock fountain to observe as well.  One duckling nearly walked over the top of my foot while making its way into the water. 

After the gardens we walked back through town and to Little India for dinner.  We walked in just in time (at about 8:30) because the place was packed and there happened to be one table open in the corner that we added a third chair to.  A lot of people kept coming in after us as well!  The food was delicious, which explains why it was so busy!  After dinner we walked back to Stonehurst, where we were staying, and happily climbed into bed.  Another full day meant another night excited about bed time!

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