Today, we traveled from Christchurch at sea level to Lake Tekapo at 2500’. It was about a 3 hour drive through pretty farm country. Think Skagit Valley. New Zealand’s major north-south highway is Highway 1 and is two lanes except for a few miles of four lane separated highway around Christchurch. But there wasn’t a ton of traffic and it was a pleasant drive. The speed limit is mostly 100 km/hr (about 60 mph) and people actually drive the speed limit which is so comforting for us old folks. Today, on a three hour drive, I only turned on my windshield wipers instead of my turn indicator three times, so I am getting better (see earlier blog post if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)

Tonight, I had an absolutely delicious salmon dinner. It was some of the freshest salmon I have had in a long time. It is distributed by a place called High Country Salmon just a little ways from here. We might make a stop there on our next travel day because I understand they have smoked salmon as well. Yum!

There are a couple highlights to Lake Tekapo. One is the lake itself and the beautiful views. During the summer there is lots of water skiing and boating. This is fall so none of that happening. There is the Church of the Good Shepherd which is an iconic South Island sight. Here are a couple pictures of the church and the lake itself.

 

 

 

Our travel buddies are enjoying the view and having a mellow evening. They slept the whole way here in the car. Unfortunately, I can’t get the camera to have both them and the mountains in focus, so I went for the mountains.

The other thing that Lake Tekapo is famous for is being a “Dark Sky Reserve”. This means that there is very little man-made light and it is an excellent place to see the stars. There are university observatories on the hills surrounding the lake. We are hoping to be able to see the stars from the back yard of our rental tonight. Maybe some star pictures.

One more piece of interesting New Zealand shopping information. On the airplane between Auckland and Christchurch, we sat next to a woman who told us to look for sweaters and scarves, etc., that were a mixture of Merino wool and possum. We gave her a weird look and she explained that the New Zealand possum is different than the North American opossum and that their possum has very soft fur. Check out the New Zealand possum here. Our first day in Christchurch I went up to a woman working the counter in a nice small clothing store and told her I had heard about clothing with wool and possum on the airplane and asked if I was having my leg pulled. She said that it is absolutely true and ended up selling me a beautiful sweater made of Merino wool, possum, silk, and cashmere.

The New Zealand possum is an invasive marsupial predator that was brought over from Australia and has spread throughout New Zealand causing mass destruction to bird species and other unique animal life. So the animals are currently trapped and hunted and sold for their fur.

Tomorrow we are hoping to take our first good hike in New Zealand. Only about five miles, but with some good hills. Will send reports.

Love to you all!

Kia ora, God bless,

Coe & Janet