Day 24 - Mountains and Lakes

​We started the day with a fascinating presentation over breakfast. Ali and Alex, who work for the NGO ‘Forest and Bird’, the organisation that Intrepid (my tour company) partner with, came to speak with us about their work. It was really interesting to hear about how and why New Zealand’s wildlife is unique, and the challenges of conservation here. With my politics geek hat on, I also enjoyed understanding a bit more about the role of non-state actors in New Zealand’s democracy. 

We got on the bus soon afterwards, leaving Christchurch behind and heading south towards the mountains. After about two hours we stopped at the town of Geraldine, and visited an excellent cheese shop there that also sold delicious ice cream. The picture here is primarily for Dad, the number one lover of ice cream I know!



A little bit further down the road we stopped in the town of Fairlie for lunch at the famous bakery there. I had a steak and cheese pie and was suitably impressed.

We were now close to the highlight of the day, Lake Tekapo. We spent some time by the side of the lake, enjoying the views of both the lake itself and the nearby Church of the Good Shepherd. The lake was a fantastic blue colour (due to it being formed from glacial melt), and had the stunning background of the mountains.


It was then a short drive up one of the nearby hills, Mount St John, for stunning views back down of the lake. Our trip mascot, Kevin the Kiwi, came and joined some of the photos too!


The last stop around the lake was probably my favourite. The sun was shining now, meaning that the reflections from the perfectly still lake were almost perfect. I reckon these photos are pretty good, but even they don’t do justice to how beautiful it was. 


Finally, we headed to our accommodation for the night, a ski lodge in the mountains. This is the view from my bedroom.


We ate a scrummy three course meal at the lodge, and then enjoyed the sunset over the mountains with some Brie and crackers from the Geraldine cheese shop. All very idyllic. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - It Starts……..

Image
Having been thinking and talking about this adventure for months, today rather crept up on me. As well being a little hurried in actually packing a rucksack for up to three months of travel (I had been organised with packing lists, just not the actually putting things in a bag bit), I was also a bit last minute in tying up loose ends at home, mainly the boring things, like sorting out my car tax that I realised expired whilst I am away. It was therefore also a bit of a late night doing the really important things, like finishing the hardback book I had no intention of travelling with, and downloading some shows to watch onto my Chromebook. But, after a bit of last minute re-packing (Do I really need that extra T-shirt? Probably not. Where did I put that charging cable?), my rucksack was ready to go, and I had sorted everything I needed to in my flat. I am pleased to report that I have not left anything in the fridge that is likely to be gross on my return. Then off through the rain to ...
Read more

Day 2 - Touristing it up in Brussels

Image
The Eurostar journey was pretty uneventful yesterday. Despite looking out of the window, I did not see any fish 🐠 as I crossed the Channel, and I made sure I was on the look-out for small boat crossings too.....  It was early evening when I arrived in Brussels. The metro system took me a few minutes (and one journey in the wrong direction) to figure out, but Google Maps did its thing and got me to my hotel safely. The hotel is near the Royal Galleries, close to the Grand Place, and it is pretty busy around as apparently this is a big weekend with Belgian National Day tomorrow.  An evening quest for food (success) was followed by a walk through said Royal Galleries and then a test of my photography skills at the Grand Place. It is, as the name suggests, pretty Grand. Pleasingly for me, there were lots of Geocaching AdLabs around for me to use to learn some history. My visit here was then followed up with some good wandering around, with the highlight undoubtedly the Brussels D...
Read more

Day 3 - Happy Belgian National Day!

Image
Yesterday evening was fairly quiet - a stroll to see Jeanneke Pis, all in the name of gender equality.... and then an ice-cream and soaking up some of the holiday vibes.  Today, in case you did not know, is Belgium's national day. I had read a bit about some celebration events, some of which I am hoping to see this evening, but I did not know that as I walked to find some breakfast this morning, within 100m of my hotel I would stumble upon the whole Belgian royal family arriving for the Te Deum mass at the St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral. Having previously sat opposite the Swedish royal family at a concert in Stockholm when visiting with Lizzy, I am starting to appreciate European royal families turning out for my visits.... Apparently it was King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and their four children (Elisabeth, Eleonore, Gabriel and Emmanuel) who were there. You can read all about their outfits on the Daily Fail Online, if that's your thing.  Anyway, I enjoyed the experience, ...
Read more