going up north

Well, i left Queenstown, planning to travel straight back to Christchurch before continuing north, but the sights were so amazing that when the bus stopped at lake tekapo for a lunch break, i got my backpack off the bus and booked into a hostel for the night. The water in the lake was a really bright terquiose blue, caused by glacial sediments, and too cold to swim 8-10 degrees, so i didn't go in.

Hired a bike and went for a wonderful ride round one side of the lake and back, looking out over the water to the snow capped mountains in the distance on one side and big hills to the other. A layer of cloud spilled over the top of the hills down into the valley in the distance threatening to block out the sun, but came no further. Cycled back to the village passed a minute church, on the waters edge, that looked like it had a wedding going on, whilst outside four coach loads of japanese tourists spilled out and took photographs of everything. Kodak must make a fortune in Japan.

Chatted to some locals that evening who told me that the lake was often mirror flat in the morning as the sun rose and the reflections of the mountains exquisite. It doesn't happen every day as i found out just before 6am the following morning!!
After the early start, took a hike up a nearby hill, Mount John, to an observatory where they watch the stars through the clearest night skies in New Zealand, took photographs of japanese tourists for them and sat looking at the view with a cuppa. A hungover american chap came and sat next to me. His son had gotten married yesterday and he had driven up the hill to clear the cobwebs, the service was disrupted several times, much to the dismay of the vicar, by the tourists that i had seen, swarming into the church and wanting to photograph everyone and everything.

Hitched back to Christchurch on an empty coach, the driver was from Birmingham, he had the strangest of accents you can imagine. He dropped me right in the centre of town, just where i needed to be. Back to the hostel that i first stayed in, its like coming home in a wierd kind of way.

Am off to the north island, hopefully to do some more work and stay in one place for a week or so, and am looking forward to that.