Driving to Lake Tekapo

The shuttle I had hoped to take to Lake Tekapo doesn't operate in winter (which is now), so at the last minute I decided to rent a car and drive there myself. I knew it wasn't far away, but what I didn't know was that a lot of the drive was through the foothills of the Southern Alps. Driving on the left didn't take long to get used to, but driving on the narrow mountain roads would have been challenging on the right side of the road. I just kept thinking, "Keep left, keep left," and it wasn't too bad. I made it in just over three hours.

Here I am with my little Mitsubishi Colt. On the map, my route is highlighted in green: south along the east coast, and then west to the center of the island. The driving was easy enough to manage my incredibly simple and tiny video camera, so here's a quick video of what it's like to drive in New Zealand, which continues to seem sort of fascinating to me.

Lake Tekapo is known for its brilliant turquoise water and extraordinarily clear night skies. My high-school friend Shera, who develops programs for Natural History New Zealand, told me that Lake Tekapo was not to be missed. And even though the overcast sky prevented the water from turning its usual colors, the little town (population 250) was just beautiful. The tiny Church of the Good Shepherd sits at the edge of the lake, and the picture window behind the altar frames the water and snow-capped mountains. The air was incredibly cold and crisp and clean.



I stayed at the Moonlight Bed and Breakfast just up the hill, and from the dinner table we looked out over the water, the mountains, and the little church. The first photo shows the view from the terrace. My hosts, René and Marianne, left their busy jobs in finance in the Netherlands last year in search of a quieter life in New Zealand. They chose Lake Tekapo, and there they operate this idyllic, four-room guest house. Because I was traveling alone and I was the only guest, they invited me to join them for dinner. Marianne cooked the most delicious vegetarian lasagna I have ever had, and we had a really lovely evening.

With Marianne before dinner; René, Marianne, and our lasagna.

Pre-star-gazing with René; beautiful breakfast-for-one overlooking Lake Tekapo.

René is an astronomy and astrology buff, and he offers free "star-gazing tours" to all guests. We stood outside under the star-crowded sky, and René used a laser pointer to indicate all the constellations in the southern sky, including an upside-down Orion and the Southern Cross, which is never seen in the northern hemisphere. Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn were all clearly visible, and the band of the Milky Way galaxy stretched brightly overhead. Three meteors darted across the sky as we gazed upwards, and the whole experience was just breathtaking. The photo below was taken by an astronomer-friend of René's who set up his camera for 200 nights before he got this perfect shot. The Southern Cross is visible just above the church's cross. The bright star closest to the church's cross is the top point of the Southern Cross. which is positioned upside-down in this photograph. This is just how the sky looks to the naked eye in Lake Tekapo.

This morning, I woke to an elaborate and delicious breakfast complete with delicious coffee and homemade bread. The drive back to Christchurch was much easier, mainly because Christchurch is the largest city in the region and there were dozens of reassuring me that I was headed in the right direction. The hardest part of all the driving was trying to get the car back to the rental agency in the city centre. I knew what street it was on, but none of the written materials I had listed the actual address. Because downtown Christchurch is a maze of one-way streets and roundabouts, I kept circling and circling, unwittingly missing the building by just two blocks. Finally I stopped at some other rental-car agency and promised the clerk I would rent my next car from him if he would just help me get the other one where it belonged. Finally I got to the right spot, dropped off the car, got myself a frappucino, and hopped on the bus back to North Shore.


Scenes from today's drive.