Keir keeps saying Tekapo like "Tah-KAH-poh". He makes it sound as though it is a Mexican dish...something kind of spicy and taco-like. It is actually pronounced TEH-ka-po and is a fairly cute-ish town situated on the one end of its namesake, Lake Tekapo. The town is quite affluent as told by the numerous architecturally modern houses that have recently been, or are still being, built.
Our first stop is the Church of the Good Shepard which was built in 1935. The tiny stone building is situated perfectly so the small congregation that gathers there looks out at the milky blue glacial waters and the distant southern alps. It is the kind of building that one imagines is booked solid with weddings during the summer months.
We stop in at the iSite and check out our options for doing a night visit at the observatory. It is quite expensive and the forecast is calling for rain so we forego the expense recalling instead our night sky tutorial from our Abel Tasman trip.
The Tekapo area is reputed to have the cleanest air in the Southern Hemisphere so we breath deeply as we soak up the atmosphere at the Alpine Springs Spa where we bask in the three outdoor hot pools (shaped like the three local lakes: Tekapo, Pukaki, and Ohau).
Already I'm getting ahead of myself though as we started the day up in the Mount Cook National Park doing another hike. This time to the Tasman Glacier, Blue Lakes and the Tasman Lake.
The rain there began in the night and was, at times, quite heavy. I get the feeling it must rain there nearly every night or thereabouts. By morning it was on and off rain and being undeterred we set off for our trek.
The Tasman Glacier is now 28km long (once 85km not THAT long ago). The terminal face is about 3km wide and at its deepest point it is 600m thick. When we arrived at the lookout to the glacier the fog/cloud was just lifting up so we were able to get a nice view of the ice fields before it all got "socked in". The glacier is noticeably more gritty than either the Fox or the Franz. You could walk for miles on it and still not be on the actual ice.
Icebergs (and rather large ones) still float all around the lake. Remaining evidence from the not-so-long-ago Christchurch disaster when the earthquake shook 30,000 tons of ice off the terminal face.
It is a serenely peaceful place. Lovely quiet. The ice eats up all the sound so even a glacier tour boat out on the water is quickly forgotten about.
Back in the village of Mount Cook we visit the Hermitage hotel where the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre and Museum is located. Keir quite likes the low key exhibit whereas I find it sorely lacking (although it is one of the few things in New Zealand that is free!). There are some photos of the place throughout the 1900's which gives a flavor for the area as it developed and some memorabilia in cases (books, pamphlets and the like). There are also some replica cars of the time and a replica plane from when flights and alpine landings first started taking place on Mount Cook.
With it being early afternoon and the rain now setting in we head for Tekapo, stopping at the far end of Lake Pukaki for lunch.
After our spa-ing in town it is nearly 5pm and so we decide to check into the neighbouring motor camp which gets a checkmark of approval in our campsite map book. Both Keir and I don't get a great vibe when we enter into the reception when neither of the two people behind the desk greet us. The price is $36 for the two of us. Pricy for our likes and that doesn't include the $2 per shower that they want extra!!! We back out the door and high tail it down the road to Twizel where we find a true Kiwi summer camp by the small lake there. Quiet and low fuss we settle in for the good nights sleep that we didn't get last night with all that ice moving around.
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