Lake Tekapo and Mount John

*insert suitably amazing caption here

The third day in Norman brought us to the postcard perfect Lake Tekapo. That stop and stare blue that you see in the adverts. And it really was beautiful. Thanks to its beauty, there were plenty of tourists there to admire it, even at the early ish time of 930am. Thankfully the tourist buses were yet to arrive, so I’d recommend going early to avoid the masses. The main viewing point is the classic Church of the Good Shepherd, accessible just off the road which weaves around the South end of the lake. We parked up and jumped out here to take the obligatory photos, but before we’d even ventured out onto the rocks for a proper look, some tourists were already done and heading off to the next photo op. If all you want is a photo, it’s a 5 minute job, but what made the day really memorable was the time we spent there, so I’d really recommend sticking around the taking it in for longer.

Pics from the lakeside: Us; The first view of blue; The church

So we wandered out onto the rocks, where it is much more feasible to get a photo that isn’t photo-bombed by another tourist, and checked out the temperature of the water (v cold). My sister swam here once in a warmer season, but October was a bit too chilly and we hadn’t been travelling long enough to need a shower that badly! We then drive around to the Tekapo Springs where we could see some tourists enjoying the view from their hot tubs. We didn’t do this but it looked like a reasonably nice way to enjoy the view all the same. Instead, we parked here and hiked a near vertical route up to the top of Mount John via the Mount John Summit Circuit Track. We took the shorter route up and back, and along with a good coffee (7/10), photo taking and general chat and view enjoyment at the top, the circuit took us around 3 hours. From here, you can really see Tekapo and its surrounds in its entirety. The lake looks all consuming when you see it from the Church of the Good Shepherd, but from Mt John, it’s a small part of a much bigger jigsaw. Mount John Observatory is also at the top, where you can learn about the stars and research being done at the University of Canterbury.

Pics from the Summit: Us; Climbing for photos; Tekapo from Mt John

So, in summary, visit Lake Tekapo, but also climb up to the Mount John Summit and Observatory. The pictures are cool.