New Zealand (the final entry) – Queenstown to Lake Tekapo to Christchurch

28^th and 29^th February, 2020

OK, the final post for a fantastic trip around the wonderful country of New Zealand, but before I proceed any further I must point out that I am typing this on 18^th March from Canberra, Australia and, as you are all too well aware, life has changed rather a lot what with the coronavirus and all. Indeed, as I type, we are now returning to London early, on 22/3/20. At least that is the plan, but things seem to be moving rather fast these days, so we shall see. Anyway, just thought we should let you know.

Meanwhile back to happier times.

Well, we left Queenstown, but decided to drop in at Arrowtown on the way as it had looked so nice the day before and indeed, it didn’t disappoint. It is obviously well preserved and something of a tourist attraction but no worse for all that. And we had an excellent breakfast as well!

It was then time to head for our last overnight at Lake Tekapo on the way back to Christchurch from where we were to catch the plane to Sydney. This involved driving up the eastern side of the Southern Alps with splendid views of Mount Cook and all the rest – except it was raining, which definitely put a damper on things! It was fine initially and this photo will give you a view of how brown it is in parts here.

We did try driving up the western edge of Lake Pukaki, which sort of runs parallel to Lake Tekapo and we did get a nice view of the lake at times.

We also stopped at a lavender farm, though it obviously would have been better had we visited about a month ago!

We arrived at our BnB and were pretty much immediately signed up for some star-gazing as Lake Tekapo is a bit special.  As my good friends at Wikipedia advise: Selected for its very clear atmosphere, large number of clear sky nights, and relative freedom from light pollution, Mount John University Observatory is located on a small hill to the north of the town, and south of the small Lake Alexandrina. Originally set up by the University of Pennsylvania (looking for a southern hemisphere location), it is now operated by the University of Canterbury. From 1969 to 1982, the United States Air Force had a satellite tracking station adjacent to the observatory. In June 2012, an area of 430,000 hectares (1,100,000 acres) around Tekapo was declared the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark-Sky Association, one of only four such reserves around the world.

This meant, in effect, turning up at a particular point at about 1030 pm to be whisked away in a minibus by a young Singaporean lad and up to the top of a hill where stood a telescope and some chairs. At least I believe they were there, but as it was pretty much total darkness, it was hard to tell. Our Singaporean then gave a great talk on what was above us, which was ABSOLUTELY BREATHTAKING!!! OK, I know I have used those terms rather a lot in this trip, but it really was, with the whole Milky Way above us and stars everywhere. There really did seem to be more stars than dark bits in between. Here is my rather pathetic attempt at astrophotography, which I have discovered is a bit trickier than you might at first think. You can see Orion’s Belt though. Note that in the Southern Hemisphere all the constellations are upside down!!

Our lovely Singaporean host gave us lots of fascinating information, none of which I can remember, aided by a very clever laser pen by which he pinpointed the various stars. Unfortunately, it was too windy to use the telescope as it would move about a bit too much.

And here are a couple of photos by someone who knows what they were doing. That is Val and me trying to keep warm and still! It was very windy and rather chilly and although they provided us with some splendid down jackets, it was still decidedly parky!

It was good to get into a warm shower at about 1230 in the morning!

The next morning dawned bright and clear and we were provided with a delicious breakfast (no need for lunch today) and were advised to make our way up the hill above town to the observatory, a piece of advice that was right on the nail. You would think you could get overload on stunning views here in New Zealand, but I can’t say we suffered that misfortune. It reminded me of Rajasthan where I really did wonder how they could top the last amazing palace/castle/temple, but they did. Here you go – the last view of New Zealand for this trip…

And then it was off to the airport in Christchurch after driving through a very agricultural plain that was a bit non-descript after all the other sights we had seen on the trip. What a country!! And definitely the best public loos in any country we have visited to date.

I hope we have given you a bit of a taste and flavour of New Zealand, though what is hard to convey is the hospitality and the youthfulness of the people. The whole place feels very new, even if you could be forgiven if you felt you were auditioning to be a hobbit or other character from Lord of the Rings. Great roads too, and not much traffic – a bit like driving in England in the 1970s, except that the cars don’t break down and you have mobile phones if ever it did.