After leaving Christchurch, we traveled first along the east side of New Zealand’s south island, and then inland towards Lake Tekapo.

The first part of our trip we were happily munching snacks in our two cars (four people in each vehicle) until we hit a long straight stretch of road. Here we stopped to rest and stretch our legs and take in the beauty of the range of mountains in the far distance. 

Then getting back into our cars we drove on and on watching the open scenery unfold around us. It seemed uneventful until we topped the ridge of one of the hills and saw the Mackenzie Basin and Lake Tekapo lying before us. 

Such a profound panorama:

We were awestruck and gobsmacked. It affected us so much we were all speechless with wonder. All that came out of our mouths was, “Oooh…aaah,” with eyes as `big-as-saucers!’ We just couldn’t take it all in at first. It is beyond one’s expectation. 

With that we were in a hurry to find parking and get out our cars. But there were so many tourist buses and people surging around. Your first impression was that this place was a very popular place, no wonder it was such a stunning place.

The cute little stone church:

Getting out our cars we noticed there was a wedding about to happen in the small church perched on a knell just above the lake shore. Then we understood, the buses weren’t just for tourists to see the lake, there were lots of people there because of a wedding.

People were taking photographs of the bride. She stood in such a gorgeous dress with a light breeze blowing her hair. Everything seemed so romantic with her beauty adding to the scene. 

Everyone gathered around to watch. But by the time I got my camera out and ready, sadly she had just moved into the chapel. Aaah shame… that would have been lovely to have had a photo of the church and her too! 

Oh well, that was that. We might as well go down to the lake and check it out. 

Looking out over the vast lake:

The incredible beauty of it blows you mind away. It is so vast that a photo’s composition of it would look totally empty.  

But I tried anyway. As you can see, sadly the stitched panoramic frames distort the scene. The shore in fact is straight, not curved. And the camera makes the mountains look like pimples in the distance! 

Down at the lake’s shore:

Stepping in between rocks we made our way down to the stony shore, where icy water flipped on and over the stones as it gently rolled into shore. 

We were overcome with the fact that the water was so clean and crystal clear. Light sea-green in colour, cold looking with the blue mountain range in the distance laden with snow. 

I suppose the purity and colour of the water was because of the snow melting and coming down from the mountains tops into the lake. 

It is hard to conceive such piscine, when you think of the rubbish you see floating and choking the brown rivers and dams back home in South Africa. 

Standing there trying to take it all in, we noticed a flock of Egyptian geese making their way into the water. First gently floating and then confidently swimming out over the water, aiming perhaps for a distant shore. 

After that we wondered up the shore and meandered along a path to a monument on another little knell. 

There we saw a cast iron statue:

It’s of a sheep dog perched high on a pile of large rocks.  A plague gives a very brief description of the brave dog. 

See full story at: http://www.twizelnz.com/legend-twizel-nz.html 

It’s a long fascinating story of what happened there, many years before in 1855, when a Scottish guy by the name of James Mackenzie furtively roamed the valley and surrounding area, herding and steeling sheep in Robin Hood style, with the aid of his faithful Border collie dog called Friday. 

How often he escaped the police was amazing. And what he said to his dog in court! You have to click on the link and read the story!  It isn’t a wonder that the whole surrounding area was named after him, even to this day. 

The variety of the place:

I loved the flowers and wild grass species rippling freely in the breeze along the pathways, as we walked back towards the chapel again.  

Then we moved on, down the other side of the church, to another whole different scene. Like weeds, strange plants grew vertically there in the desert-like stony scene.

Needless to say we spent a lot of time at Lake Tekapo, exploring the diversity it had to offer.