After a great trip through the lovely Lindis Pass, my mum's favourite pass and probably mine too, with its wonderful golden tussock and gently rolling hills and valleys full of deciduous trees clad in their beautiful amber and gold colours, we arrived at the first of the lakes in the 'Lake District' , Lake Ruataniwha, part of the Waitaki hydro system, and absolutely gorgeous with its perfect reflections on the crystal clear water.
I shall remember the colours of this trip for a long long time. They were simply stunning.
We got into Tekapo quite late due to late departure from Wanaka (making the most of having David around and being in such a fabulous place) and also to the many stops along the way. Our Motel was right on the shore of Lake Tekapo with a marvelous view of the lake.
We even had a visitor from Velveteen the camp's cat (I was going to write camp cat but I knew this could be misinterpreted!!). Anyway, she certainly took a liking to Dennis, or perhaps more importantly food and drink. There was a notice in the office begging visitors not to feed Velveteen because she was fed adequately by the owners. She certainly did not look as if she was starving from her girth, but she did not realise this!
After a quick dinner, Dennis and I had a heavenly soak in the nearby hot pools under the stariest sky I have seen for a long time. We have been pretty spoilt with skies everywhere we went, but Tekapo has lighting restrictions after 10.00 p.m. so there is really virtually no light pollution. There had been lots of opportunities to see the southern lights in the previous days, but we didn't see them unfortunately.
Luckily, I woke relatively early the next day and quickly rushed out to catch the wonderful dawn lighting on the lake.
Tekapo has not been too spoilt by tourism, though it has certainly expanded, prices have gone up and it has better facilities. One particularly great facility is the toilet block which has the most wonderful picture of merino sheep on the side of it and is apparently fantastic inside too.
What a lovely welcome when you arrive at the car park!
The lake was spectacular, not the usual turquoise colour, but the contrast of tree colour, lake and sky was still exceptionally beautiful and the wispy cloud floating across the whole panorama was stunning.
Time to head home on our last day of travels. How I shall miss those fun days with marvelous company in such gorgeous places! We did have a couple more things to enjoy on the way home. The toilets have featured in several of my blogs and Dennis particularly loved this sign
As avid language learners we also thoroughly enjoyed this next sign regarding the toilet paper. How wonderful to visit the toilet and get a lesson in 7 languages!!
Of course, we also had many coffee/tea stops along the way, not only this day but every day. I almost feel inclined to take up drinking 'flat white' coffees so that I can enjoy the beautiful patterns they make on them. Dennis tells me the coffee is great too. The incredible thing is that if you drink the coffee carefully, the pattern remains when all the coffee has gone, at the bottom of the cup.
Nearing home I was thrilled that Dennis was introduced to a very special thing which I have only ever seen in New Zealand - moving house. One might say that this happens all over the world, but here they can actually do it literally, provided that the house is timber and not concrete of course!
Back home to my beautifully stained deck and brilliant autumn colours, enjoyed from the house and also
from the spa!!!
And as Dennis prepared to leave, there was a particularly splendid sunrise to see him off!
Time had flown by and yet we had seen an incredible amount and enjoyed the two week enormously since he arrived in New Zealand. Thanks for the visit and see you soon in Switzerland!
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