Catching Up (Lake Tekapo)

We spent last weekend touring in the central part of Canterbury, driving near one of the shooting sites for the Lord of The Rings.  A little while after leaving Christchurch, heading inland, you enter the MacKenzie Country of NZ.  The terrain features lot of windy roads, pretty farmland, and some views of the Southern Alps that give a glimpse of what's to see there.

We drove to Lake Tekapo on Friday, a small town on the shores of...Lake Tekapo--imagine that.  The town is noted for three special things--a tourquoise-colored lake, the Chapel of the Good Shepard (above, right on the shore), and world-class night skies.  The first thing we saw as the road descended into town was a great vista of the lake below us, and the Southern Alps in the background.  This was only a hint of things to come that weekend.

We had arranged to stay in a small modern cottage that sits on a hill above the lake.  While it wasn't really our style, the location could not have been better.

The deck on the front was just what we wanted--an unobstructed view of the lake during the day and a nearly 360-degree view of the dark sky at night.  Our anticipation was heightened even more when the property managers told us that they has seen the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) the night before--very rare for that time of year.  We just couldn't wait for it to get dark!  After dinner we went down to the lake and took some pictures of the Chapel (top picture) and other features on the lakeshore.

We caught a nice sunset over our backs, making the lake sparkle in front of us and the distant mountains turn a nice shade of magenta.  Once it got dark enough, the skies did not disappoint.  Very early on we saw Jupiter and Saturn as big and bright as we've ever known them.  As it got increasingly darker, more planets and more stars came out, filling the sky across the whole horizon.

Then, we saw a few pulses of light flash over us to the south--sure enough, the Southern Lights!  Not very bright, and not many of them, but pretty cool to see, just the same.

Mike was tired from the driving, so he took an evening nap--telling Terry to wake him up later.  When she did wake him, he came out to see a whole sky full of planets, stars, and a great view of the Milky Way!  Neither of us could remember the last time we got a good look at the Milky Way, so it was very special.

Knowing we had a long day ahead of more touring, hiking, and another night of sky-watching, we finally called it a night.  We'll report on the next day's drive up Lake Pukaki, our hiking near Aoraki Mount Cook, some great views of the mountain, and more in the next blog.

Mike and Terry