Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo is the highest altitude lake located in New Zealand, probably with one of the most stunning view as well.

Lake Tekapo is roughly 3.5 hours drive from Christchurch. The bus which i was on actually took a longer time to reach time, but the estimated time was given as 3.5 hours. The drive from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo gives you the chance to view beautiful scenary of the countryside, with shallow rivers occasionally along the way.

When I arrived at Lake Tekapo, it was sunny. Praise God for the nice weather. So it wasn't that cold at that time. I stayed at YHA Lake Tekapo, and the person in-charge was kind enough to answer all my random questions before the trip. Thank you so much Mr Yau. The room was nice and warm and you actually get to see the lake from your window. Nice view indeed.

Anyway, I will give a brief picture of Lake Tekapo town centre. There'll a supermarket there, 4 Square Supermarket, i-site, dining places which includes Japanese, Chinese and Western cuisine. There's also souvenirs shop and so on. So basically, you won't die of starvation during your stay there.

Sunrise at Tekapo

I didn't do much basically at there. The original planning was to go to a skiing side 2 hours drive from Lake Tekapo provided there are people who are willing to give us a ride. Sadly, nobody seems to be going there. So, i end up walking around the lake at the first day. There's also a plan to go stargazing on that night, but due to the cloudy weather, it was postpone to second night.


On the second day, I went further abit and walk to the dam. It seems Tekapo is a hydro-power generating place. Then walk on and go to Church of Good Sheppard. A small church just by the lake side. Stunning view if you look outside of the window. The sun shines upon the altar as well. It's indeed a magnificant place to glorify God. Walking on I came upon a sheppard dog statue which was built to remember the contribution of dogs in taking care of the sheeps.

Later in the afternoon, I ended up going to the hot pools. It was nice. You can see snow-cape mountains in front of you while seeing trees at your back. It seems as though nature is so close. View wise, it is better than the Rotorua Polynesian Spa, and cheaper somemore. Haha....

At night, I ended up going for star gazing. It's a trip up Mt. John (if i'm not mistaken) where you actually have the chance to observe stars and moons within the observatory dome. The equipment was owned by the University of Canterbury. The tours ended with a cup of nice and warm hot chocolate :) Too bad I didn't get the chance to observe Aurora, but if I do have chance, I will go there again for the Aurora.

Next day morning, it went totally foggy. So I just go to the lake side, pick up a stone and write some words on it. The stone was placed together with all those written by previous backpackers who travelled to YHA Lake Tekapo. After that, I went back to Christchurch.

To those of you who're interested:
The price of the hot-pool is $12 dollar for student, and $21 including skiing if not mistaken.
The price of star-gazing is $68, but $5 dollar discount if you're YHA members and some other members.

Photos will be up soon. This's gonna be a loooooooong post :)