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Tekapo

20 January

After Queenstown, I headed up the northern spine of the south island to the Southern Alps. I stayed in a little town of Tekapo which sits on the shores of Lake Tekapo. The highlights of the town, excluding the scenery, are the small church of the good shepherd and the collie dog monument. Yes, a statue of a dog! The statue is to appreciate the value of the collies who helped the grazing of the surrounding land possible. Before I did these highlights, I walked up Mt John (a small hill, but every hill here is called a mountain) and a game of crazy golf. My score was shocking as was the quality of the course! The lake itself used to be a glacier and the water is turquoise in colour. This is due to glacier flour. Glacier flour are rocks that have been pulverised by the pressures of the glacier and turned into fine grain. These rock grains are light enough to be suspended in water and therefore able to reflect the light of the sun. This reflection is what makes the water turquoise. On my way to Wanaka, I stopped off at Mt Cook Village. Mt Cook is the highest mountain in NZ, but a mere hill to those I saw in the Andes. Unfortuately it was too foggy to see the summit but fortunately I took some photos of the mountain on a clear day on the way to Tekapo. Although I didn't see Mt Cook close up I did see a statue of Edmund Hillary sporting the most cheesiest grin you will ever see.

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