After waving a fond farewell to Queenstown, it was off to Tekapo, en route to my final destination of Christchurch. Lake Tekapo is home to the church of the good shepherd, an image often represented on postcard images of the south island, with the small stonework church sitting on an isolated outcrop of land looking out to the lake and the mount...

23.07. Nach einigen schönen Wochen in New Brighton haben wir uns wieder auf den Weg gemacht. Der Abschied von unserem geliebten Pier und der super Bibliothek, den Surfern und Wellen dem Sandstrand und pier-fischen war fast ein wenig sentimental… Aber die Berge rufen und wir sind losgezogen Richtung Südwesten. Unsere erste Station auf diese...

We originally had decided to stay in Omarama but it didn't take very long to drive there and there wasn't much to see so we continued onwards to Twizel. Bill bought a book on Lord of the Rings locations and Twizel was one of them. We asked in the info office and they told us the route. It was about 15 minutes drive from Twizel and was basically ...

2nd April 2007 - Lake Tekapo After we plucked up the courage to get up in the chilly van (we later find a fan heater in the cupboard) we headed back into Akaroa for a walk along the lake and another stroll around the town. We traveled inland today towards Lake Tekapo. The weather is lovely and sunny and the scenery is as beautiful as we expecte...

A good sleep later we left Dunedin and headed in land back towards the southern alps, are destination Lake Tekapo. On the way the bus stopped at the Moeraki boulders, weird boulder on the beech for a quick photo shoot. All the buses here stop at these sort of places, including the bog standard intercity buses, in fact these drivers get a bit bor...

Right so we rolled into Lake Tekapo around 5.30pm.. Checked into the Lake Front Lodge Backpackers - its lovely little place right beside the lake front! Nice setup going on there!! Went down to the lake with Mary for a bita a stroll around and then we headed back to the hostel for a few drinks before all the crew on the trip went out for a meal....

We decided to take the supposedly scenic inland route to Lake Tekapo, which is the gateway to the southern alps. It's probably much nicer in the winter when it's a ski area but you also have to cross some boring flat plains. However after 5 hours we finally hit the gorgeous Lake Tekapo surrounded by snowy mountains offset by a beautiful stone ch...

After some emailing this morning we drove inland to Lake Tekapo via the scenic route 72. The countryside is very pretty and we certainly took our time. We stopped for a private picnic with fantastic views of a huge U-Shaped valley created by a glacier. Along our journey were small nestled villages (Fairlie and Geraldine). The countryside has a s...

Going back towards Christchurch we did an overnight stop at Lake Takepo. Have a look at the stunning photo's of Lake Takepo - I woke up to this the following morning! Along with Lake Takeop is Australasia's highest peak known as "Mount Cook" standing at 3754 metres, surrounded by 200sq. km of alpine beauty featuring 12 glaciers!!. On a clear day...

A couple of hours after we left Methven, the rain had cleared and we arrived at Lake Tekapo in glorious sunshine. The view from the village, and indeed our hostel living room window, was simply stunning - pretty pink and purple lupins growing wild on the banks of the sparkling turquoise lake, flanked by rolling green hills and framed by snow-cap...