Saturday, 30th December, 2017
Our good night’s sleep was disturbed with a number of calls Gerry got on his phone from Europe!! We have to learn to put our phones on “Do not disturb” mode before we go to bed, as it is most annoying to be woken up………
Anyway, it was an early start – Eve suggested that we hit the road by 8 am so we were ready and packed by 7.50 and I think Eve was rather impressed. Mind you, our alarm clock went off at 6 am!!
Ralph had a route planned for us today:
- Lake Tekapo
- Mount John Observatory
We drove some 400km but first we had to get to Lake Tekapo, which was some 90km further away.
Lake Tekapo is surrounded by mountains and is situated in the MacKenzie Country (named after James –Jock MacKenzie who was a sheep rustler and brought his flocks through this country in 1840’s). This lake is a result of the hydropower scheme back in the 1950’s and now the township is a holiday resort facing the lake and the backdrop of snow-capped mountains. One of the sights at Lake Tekapo is the little church of the Good Shephard. which has a window behind the altar offering a divine view on the lake and mountains.Apparently, this is such a romantic spot that even Chinese couples come here to get married!
When we left Lake Tekapo, Ralph drove towards Mount John. This is a mountain of 1.029 meters height with an observatory with day and night tours provided by the Mt John University Observatory. The private road wound up the mountain and once we were up at the summit, the views were just magnificent.
Lake Tekapo has one of the most spectacular night skies in the world. The clarity and sheer numbers of stars visible to the naked eye amaze visitors from all over New Zealand and the world during Lake Tekapo’s night.
Lake Tekapo’s night sky has interested more than just the visitors. Canterbury University operates a astronomical observatory on top of Mt John, overlooking Lake Tekapo. The clear skies and low levels of local light pollution have helped astronomers put Mt John observatory on the international map with observations and discoveries of the southern sky. Unfortunately we were not able to stay overnight and anyway that night was a cloudy one!
Once we had visited both Lake Tekapo and Mount John Observatory, we continued our drive towards Dunedin. This was really amazing! Beautiful green hills, winding roads and hairpin bends. It was all too much to take in and this resulted that I had a few naps in the car!!
And then round about 6pm, we had arrived in Dunedin! This is the town where two young Dutch boys became friends many decades ago. Ralph and Gerry are still friends and now have the time to fill in the gaps…….. When we settled down and freshened up, we drove over to Kim and Murray (Ralph and Eve’s daughter and son in law) to meet up with the family and have dinner there. It was a very pleasant evening – meeting old friends and making new ones!
