28.2.08 6:30pm- Lake Tekapo V

This is our last night at Tailor-Made-Tekapo Backpackers. Neither Seth nor I want to leave since it is so nice here, and because we still don’t have a place to go when we return to Canberra! We will spend the evening preparing to fly back, and one of the big challenges will be to eat all our food—we have done such a good job making use of “free bin” items (random foods hostel guests leave behind) that we actually have a few more cans of beans, tuna, packages of noodles, eggs, etc to eat by tomorrow!

On Sunday (Feb 24^th) we went to an evening service at the Church of the Good Shepherd (1935). Lake Tekapo is famous for this small chapel made of great stone blocks, which hangs on to a small peninsula that reaches into the iridescent blue lake. It is shared by several denominations, and the service on Sunday was Anglican. The interior was very cute—only 4 rows of pews on the left and 5 on the right, and it seemed quite full with about 20 worshippers. The doors were, at that time, closed to onlookers, but we could still see people passing by the windows outside. The service was full of little old ladies (probably half local and half visitors), and the worship books had many sections written in both English and Maori. I was really surprised at how frequently the Maori language appears in NZ—we even found a news program on TV delivered in Maori!Lord's Prayer in Maori

Lake Tekapo is also famous for the small statue of a collie dog, which stands next to the chapel. The monument (erected in honour of the sheepdogs that made possible the development of Mackenzie Country) seems a little silly to me, particularly since it attracts hordes of tourists who jump off their bus, take a few snapshots, then hop back on and never really explore the area beyond the little merino wool gift shops. The statue is fairly new, built in the 1960s, and doesn’t do justice to its surroundings. I still haven’t gone to see it up close—we’ve only run past it in the early mornings—but maybe I will tomorrow when we pull out of town, just for the heck of it.

Yesterday Michael gave Seth and me the morning off from work and suggested we spend the day at Mt. Cook National Park. It was a great sunny day so the threat of a shower on the ranges was not as high. The drive was only about 1hour 15min, and our first stop was at the Blue Lakes. We took an hour walk to and from the lakes, which were not nearly as majestic as their namesake, being little green pools unworthy of even a photograph! Luckily, the walk also took us to the Tasman Glacier, which is actually horizontal for its last several kilometres and melting, so what remains at lower elevations is spectacular chunks of very dirty ice surrounded by murky water.

Our big walk for the day was the Sealy Tarns tramp, which began at the Horrible Hermitage Hotel at Mt Cook Village and after about 30minutes of boardwalk took us suddenly up an extremely steep ridge face. It was like doing a Stairmaster for 2 hours, but much harder and scarier. It even made my legs feel like Jell-o when I would stop to admire the view past the sudden drop. Seth’s legs were wobbly, too, which was very funny! The narrow, rocky track ended at Sealy Tarns—a tarn is a small lake that sits on a mountain—and from here we got a nice face-full of Mt Sefton (3145m) and views of Mt Cook (3754m, tallest peak in “Australasia”). The total walk was about 3 hours, but we climbed nearly 500m (1,667 feet) from the base of the ridge in about 1 hour.

When we were walking back we could hear keas off near the village. After our initial excitement we remembered how curious and destructive they are, and that our car was unattended! We got to the car just in time to see the little buggers flying in, so we spent a little while playing with them in the road. They are so intelligent and inquisitive, probably as smart as human toddlers.

Once again, the keas were probably the highlight of a very fun day. :P However, it was an added bonus that we got away with not having to buy any petrol at Mt Cook (which probably would have been close to $2/L) and managed to just barely get back to Tailor-Made without running out!

When we returned, tired and hungry, and fairly late at night, Seth decided to trim his beard. He had been unshaven since we camped in Okarito, 19 days ago. His beard got fairly impressive, mostly because of big splotches of white (not gray, white) mingling with the red and brown. He did not fully shave but at least it is more manageable now!