9-10 Dec 2011 Changi - Lake Tekapo

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At first i thought only 3 of us are going. Then J sent me his e-tix. K sent me his e-tix a week before the scheduled departure. And then M threaten to leave the group (again! She must does this EVERYTIME we go on group trip) if I don’t upgrade the car. We have to frantically cancel all existing motel bookings and book apartment instead and upgrade the car to a bigger one (a camry).

Reached Changi around sunset time.



The plane that ferried us was a old SQ with no on demand shows (they basically keep repeating the movies so if you missed the beginning too bad, no rewind/ffw function will be entertained). Quite a wrong start if you looked at it. Only consolation is J got extra leg room since he is sitting at 36C (36C is normally not an emergency exit row but because this SQ plane is a old junkie…somehow 36C is the emergency exit row).

View of the Southern Alps from the plane:


Our woes didn’t end there. Long queue and slow immigration clearance at CC Airport is one. The immigration officer kept asking us for our return ticket and itinerary (halo, aunty, nowadays everything electronic, where got print out return ticket one??) And K is on a different flight from Hong Kong through Auckland. He is not in the airport yet. We have no idea what time he will arrived. We found out later that he will arrive at Domestic Terminal. But what time?? Lucky there is a free internet kiosk. I checked my mailbox, no email from him. I emailed him and leave him a fb message.

Got onto the courtesy bus to GoRental office, the road outside the airport is called Orchard Road (doesnt flood one). The lady pointed to the US Airforce plane parked at the hangar across the fence, said that those are flights bound for the Antartica (NZ is the base for flying personnel and resources to Antartica). Once we reached the office, the lady has everything sorted out within 30 minutes. We got our camry. Not really new but ok. Rusty bits here and there but still a new camry. The colour is purple and that’s all M cares about. Put all our luggage in and off we went. Now we head to our first destination – supermarket! We went to Park & Save (yes, yellow! And they give 4 cents off per litre of petrol if you shop more than 30 dollars in a single receipt) and shop for tomorrow’s brekkie.

Golden kiwi sold at Park n Save:



Had the cheapest lunch at KFC (only NZD26.90 for 4 people as opposed to NZD30 for 1 person in Lake Tekapo later) yum yum! KFC is tasty even without sauce. After the lunch we drove back to the airport hoping that Kevin will be on the 1420 plane from Auckland but to no avail. We finally set off to Lake Tekapo at 3pm, still wondering what happened to Kevin. No email reply, no fb messages reply. Where could he ended up in? Isnt he on an earlier flight from Hong Kong at 3pm as opposed our 7pm flight? Strange strange strange.



Pleasant drive from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo via Geraldine, took us about 3 hours before we ended up at Pioneer Drive, where our motel is. Plenty of lupins along the road and at Lake Tekapo itself.



Last hurdle – M drove the Camry to the shelter of the motel and get stucked in narrow alley. We have to ask the owner Max to come out and help steering, for fear she might bring the whole wooden car shelter down by knocking into column. By the time we are all done and let out a sigh of relief, we couldn’t wait to head straight to the lake, which is turquoise in colour. The owner’s dog defied his master order and went to the lake before us, only to be pulled back to the house against its wish.

There is a huge plume of cloud stucked between hills not too far away. It is such a perfect picture day.



There is a couple taking wedding photo near the lake.



Water is cold though, I estimate 5°C water.



The little church is nearby.




I borrowed M’s bb and saw a status that K left on his fb and immediately understood what actually happened. His flight from HK delayed and he got held up at Auckland Airport by the immigration! I quickly left him a fb comment and inform him the new SIM card numbers of J and M, hopefully he can contact us when he reach CC.
We adjourned to the restaurants for dinner and come to a stark realization that we need to cook ourselves dinner in the future. So damn expensive! NZD 30 for a meal? Gotto be kidding me! We reluctantly settled down at a jap restaurant. When I nearly finished my meal, the long-awaited sms came, K has reached Lake Tekapo! I quickly grab the car key and went back to the motel and fetch him for dinner. He slowly recounted what happened – Auckland airport held him in custody and keep hounding him for return ticket, itinerary and cash on body to ascertain that he is really a tourist. According to the cab driver that drove him from CC to Lake Tekapo, a few HK drug traffickers nabbed recently and the Auckland police became very suspicious of Asians landing at Auckland Airport, CC airport is more reasonable. If only he landed in CC instead of transferring at Auckland! By the time he was allowed to enter the country, he has to take the later flight and end up in CC at 1720. He quickly take a cab from CC airport to Lake Tekapo (NZD300 after bargain). We are finally together, all 5 of us.

Because there are 5 of us, we upgraded to a much bigger apartment. Parkhead Motel is nice, our house has 3 rooms, 1 room with king size bed and attached bathroom, 1 room with queen sized bed and another room with two single beds.



Complete with living room, sky TV, kitchen, washing machine and came with an impeccable lake view. How cool is that?! Temperature outside is cold though, we have to switch on the heater in the end. Nothing beats taking a hot shower and change to shorts and watch sky TV, while eating the gold kiwi (Sweet!) we bought from Park & Save earlier. Totally relaxed and calm, just like how a holiday should be. The sun set pretty late. Full moon tonight hence not much star gazing possible. NZ uses a different plug system so K and I have to arrange the plugs so that everyone get to charge their camera batteries.




(The above 2 photos taken by K)

11 Dec 2011 Mount Cook Village

We know today will be a hectic day. The weather is so sunny, it must be Sun-Day.
The view of lake tekapo from our bedroom balcony:



We decided to make use of today to the fullest. First destination – Observatory.


Some windy hair-pin steep climb and we are here at the carpark. The views from the observatory….i will leave you to comment.




You can see that the two lakes in the above photos have different colour. The turquoise colour lake is Lake Tekapo and the deep blue colour lake is Lake Alexandrina. Different lake colour water is what make NZ lakes so unique.

The view of tekapo town and our motel from the top of the observatory:


Motuariki Island in the middle of Lake tekapo, which was clearly visible from the Observatory but somehow not noticed when we went to the shore of the lake yesterday:



The plume of clouds that got stucked in between the two hills last night retreated a bit:





Southern light has been recorded, according to this DVD promotional booklet found in the café:



(The above 2 photos taken by K)

We then proceed to Mount Cook Village, somewhere near Twizle. Twizle is a town that was not meant to be – it was supposed to be demolished after the hydroelectric project ended but 18 years down the road, when the construction was finally over, the project personnel and their families grew to love the place and decided to stay put in Twizle.
We passed the Tekapo Army Camp on the way to Mount Cook. We stopped along the way to take some scenic shots of Mount Cook, which was not blocked by the clouds. Absolutely gorgeous sunny care free day. View of Mount Cook and its cousins across Lake Pukaki:





Photo below showed the view of Mount Cook across Lake Pukaki taken from the car park near the Tourist office. This is when I first learn the story of the Punamu, the legendary green stone that the Maori adores.

Can you see the moron swimming in icy cold lake pukaki in the photo?



Pine cones that fell off everywhere (sometimes hit you in your head):



We are the only car on the road while driving to Mount Cook Village:


Hermitage is the only hotel (quite ex) in Mount Cook Village, there is also a YHA backpacker hostel though. It must be cool to stay there for a night as the snow mountains are all just nearby.



Mount Cook is the grandest of them all, and you cant miss it, as distinct as the Matterhorn. We went to the cafeteria of Hermitage to have some tea cum lunch. Hot choc came with mush mellow, so nice! And the chicken pie, totally delicious.



The staff will give you this gadget once you ordered. The gadget will sound an alarm once ur food is ready to be picked up. Cool eh?





(The above 2 photos taken by K)

We recharge our energy for the afternoon activity. First we shall drive to Tasman Lake to see the glacier.



It is not a tar road so as we drive, we will generate cyclone of dust behind us (which explained what we saw before we reached Hermitage earlier – dust cyclones made by other cars) Need some climb tho…met these two gentlemen at a junction and asked them whether the boats to Tasman Lake is available. They said you have to sign up and sign indemnity form at the Hermitage before they will ferry you around in Tasman Lake. They couldn’t catch a boat cos they didn’t sign up at the hotel earlier.

The view of Tasman Valley which were carved out by glacier ions ago. You can see the winding path that lead up to the viewing point. I was halfway through when I took this photo:


We continue to climb till we reach the top of the hill and viola! Glacier chucks broken off and floating on Tasman Lake, formed by melting glaciers.







The river flow rapidly from Tasman Lake downstream. Very pristine water. The glacier is as usual looked dirty. It is cold to stand and admire the view due to the wind but all worth it. Trust me, without the loud speaking asian tourists that we are accustomed with and only with the quiet angmos, the scene can be very tranquil and peaceful. Totally love the view of the valley seen from the top.



We were wondering how does it feel to dip our hands into the icy cold river water so we went down and walk the other path to touch the water. Not that easy tho, got to navigate and at times jump over big rocks. When we finally managed to touch the water, the chill is all worth it.



Went back to the car park and J told us the Australian couple suggested we go and take a look at Hooker Valley, which also has glacier view and very little climbing involved. We sped off to Hooker Valley and started walking towards the swing bridge.



It takes a total of 4 hours to complete the trek to the end point. Some parts scrambles.


(Picture courtesy of K)

M and R finally surrender at the second swing bridge and return, while the old couple that went with us trudged on. The swing bridge above the river.






The only toilet stop along the whole Hooker Valley trail.



Thank god it is boardwalk towards the last quarter of the walk.


(Picture courtesy of K)

Finally reached the Hooker Lake. The ice chunks are clearer and more pristine than those mud covered ones floating on Tasman Lake.




The end of the trail. Glacier is not that far away. Area prone to avalanche, very unstable landscape.


Previous avalanche. We heard a loud thud on our way back, wonder what could have happened somewhere nearby. Another avalanche? Glacier chunks broke off? God knows.



By the time J, K and I got back to the car, it is already 6pm. We went back to the Hermitage and the café is already closed.
Cotton wools above the hills as seen when we drove back to the motel.



J, K and I walked to the church to capture some night shots. It is kinda fun to walk in the middle of midnight, without any street lights (Lake Tekapo doesn’t have any street lights so that it will not create any light pollution in the area). K brought a long a LED table lamp which was excellent in helping us to see our way and checking the buttons on the camera in a blind. Full moon shining on the church roof and patiently wait for the SLR capture the scenery on tripod.





(The above 2 night shots belong to K)

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