Today is our last day in Lake Tekapo, we have grown fond of this small town and will miss the peace and quiet. After seeing the partial solar eclipse (detailed in another post,) we relaxed around the hostel common room. Sangeet challenged me to another game of Jenga. I won, but I am not showing off! Later we had a wander around the hostel gardens which are nicely kept. They have a little herb garden too, guests are free to pick fresh herbs from there.
Afterwards, we had one last walk to the town centre. We also revisited The Church of the Good Shepherd so we could go inside. Situated on the shores of Lake Tekapo is the Church of the Good Shepherd, which, in 1935, was the first church built in the Mackenzie Basin. The church at Burkes Pass, St Patrick’s built in 1872 was the first church built by pioneers as a joint community effort, by Anglicans Presbyterian and Catholic settlers. Also a joint venture between Presbyterians and Anglicans, St Columba in Fairlie was built in 1879. The church at Lake Tekapo was designed by Christchurch architect R.S.D. Harman, based on sketches by a local artist, Esther Hope. The church is arguably one of the most photographed in New Zealand, and features an altar window that frames stunning views of the lake and mountains.
As we are flying from Christchurch, early Friday morning, we decided to drive across today and spend a full day visiting the town. The drive takes around 3 hours and is across magnificent rolling hills.
We arrived in Christchurch and headed over to the airport so that we can book tomorrow’s accommodation. Then we headed to New World so we could buy some ingredients for tonight’s dinner. Afterwards we headed to the hostel, easier said then done, as a lot of the roads were closed due to restoration following the earthquake two years ago (can you believe they have had 10,000 tremors since?!!?). The hostel is
Chester St Backpackers
148 Chester St East
Christchurch
Email Hostel
T: +64 3 377 1897
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Sangeet made spicy potato which we had with tortilla, it was very nice. Later I popped out to grab some milk. At the supermarket called Countdown, I met a couple of Sikhs who said the gurdwara was badly damaged during the earthquake. One of the local sangat members has Guru Granth Sahib Ji at home, unfortunately they only perform a Sunday programme….suppose being his personal home he would not want visitors during the week.
Back at the common room we relaxed with the other backpackers….there is a television here so nobody talked, they just watched television! You usually find that when visiting family or friends…..usually they just switch on the television…..suppose their world revolves around television!!<
At most hostels, there is a notice board, informing you of the weather, events, what to see and on this day a partial eclipse at 10:28am. The best way to view is through safety glasses.
Everybody came out to see the partial solar eclipse
One person holds the safety glasses, whilst the other takes a photo
A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This phenomenon can usually be seen from a large part of Earth outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse. However, some eclipses can only be seen as a partial eclipse, because the umbra passes above the Earth’s polar regions and never intersects Earth’s surface.
For the past couple of days I have been getting bad stomach pains, seems like the intestine issue has come back to tell me it is still there. So this morning I just needed a lie in. When I awoke we went to the kitchen to have breakfast.
Afterwards, we sat in the common room and made plans for the next few days, where we will be staying and when do we go to Christchurch (our flight to Melbourne is this Friday). Also as we had bought 24 hour internet access which gave us 500mb of data it was a good opportunity to use this.
Internet access is sometimes sold as a data limit e.g. 100 mb for so much NZ$ or a time limit with a data restriction. From the hostel we purchased 500mb over 24 hours for $10.00, so far we have had a good upload/download speed.
Also had a Skype call with my father which was good.
Afterwards we went for a walk to the centre, it has a good range of shops from cafes/restaurants to four square (supermarket), ATM point (AZM) and a couple of gas stations. The prices in four square are good value considering we are a fair distance from any main town.
This is the view, when you leave the hostel ground
Four Square
Cafe
We walked the small loop along the coast and past the YHA, which we entered to enquire about accommodation. On entering the YHA hostel we did not feel a cosy vibe, it just felt very commercial. The views from the common room which overlooked the lake was very nice, the only positive word we have to say about this hostel. So glad we booked the tailor-made-tekapo hostel.
Mini golf
After visiting the YHA we walked back to the centre, Sangeet purchased a waterproof jacket. We then popped to four square to buy some items for lunch and dinner.
Back at the hostel Sangeet and I ate crackers, humus, cucumber, cheese and relish. When we finished we sat in the common room and uploaded some pictures to flickr:
www.flickr.com/gaygoat
There was a guy here from Korea, we got chatting and I asked him if he plays chess. He said yes. So we had a intense game….it went down to him having a king, queen and pawn, I had a king pawn and rook. He won….we were both happy at a very good and intense game and both admitted to making some silly mistakes.
Whilst we were playing chess, Sangeet cooked a stir fry which was very tasty..I went to the Chinese restaurant to purchase steamed rice…..I thought it would have been cheaper then buying it from the supermarket but it cost NZ$6.00!
After dinner we went for a drive to Mount John Observatory, unfortunately this closes at 6pm, so we drove further to lake Alexandria, the views are fantastic. The clouds seemed to be hugging the mountains….looks like a magical place…..God’s creations and so fabulous.
On the way back we went to the Church of the Good Shepherd.
The bronze statue of the dog on the shores of Lake Tekapo is dedicated to the working collie dogs of the Mackenzie Country and was commissioned on the 7th of March, 1968.
Later in the evening around 11pm we drove to the church to view the stars, there was some light pollution from the village lights, so we decided to head 20 minutes out of town where it was pitch black. We could see so many stars, the sky was amazing. We even saw a few shooting stars.
After checking out of the hostel we decided to head to Patagonia chocolates in Queenstown for a smoothie and to use their wifi. We needed to sort out the car hire for Australia, looking to drive from Melbourne to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Drive. The main sites I checked was www.standbycars.com and www.hertz.com. Standbycars is great IF you can get the deal, they offered a one way rental from Melbourne to Adelaide for Aus$5.00 per day but the mileage is limited to 1,500km and you need to complete the journey in two days. Also the dates were not favourable with us. I ended up using hertz as I am a member of their Hertz number one gold club. The price quoted was good.
We spent about three hours at Patagonia, a Sikh family also came in to buy some drinks and sweets, their father sat with us and told us their life story….him and his wife are both doctors and run a hospital in Hyderabad, one of their two sons works as a doctor in Dunedin and the other works for Microsoft in Auckland. We exchanged contact details, he also told us that he has good contacts around India and if we do visit he can get us good discounts….! On a very personal note I have difficulty trusting people from India though he seemed like a genuine person.
After they left we continued with our internet work which was completed by around 4pm. As we were heading north to Lake Tekapo we decided to stock up with food, soups, gluten free bread….yes you may seem surprised, but sometimes we eat healthy! Saying that, on the way to the supermarket we did pass by Fergburger for our last serving of fries and onion rings!
We said our goodbyes to Queenstown and headed north on highway 6 then caught highway 8 to Lake Tekapo. The drive was amazing, driving past rolling hills. It started raining very heavily, we then saw a double rainbow. The drive takes about 4 hours and is very pleasant, the only downside is the 100kmph speed limit. We also passed beautiful Lake Pukaki. The lakes here have an amazing turquoise colour. This is due to ‘rock flour’ (sediment) in the water. This so called flour was created when the lakes basin was gorged out by a stony bottomed glacier moving across the lands surface, with the rock on rock action grinding out fine particles that ended up being suspended in the glacial melt water. This sediment gives the water a milky quality and refracts the sunlight beaming down, hence the brilliant colour.
We arrived in Lake Tekapo around 7pm and were lucky to catch the hostel staff before they closed up, they showed us around the very busy hostel and to our room, it was okay but we have been very spoilt at other hostels…..I am sure you know which ones!
In the evening we walked across from our room to the kitchen where Sangeet had a humus and salad wrap, I had soup and bread.
After dinner we went to the common room where Sangeet challenged me to a game of Jenga, in this game one would place wooden blocks on top of each other in a stack, one then removes a wooden block (not from the top, but anywhere else) without the structure toppling over. Sangeet won!
As the hostel was full for tonight we decided to move on. It will be very hard to leave as it is a fantastic hostel and the staff are very friendly and helpful in making your stay memorable.
After breakfast Ruth, Sangeet and I decided to walk up the gondola track….there are two ways to the top, take the gondola which means departing with money or walk which is free, of course we decided on the free route. We said our byes to the hostel staff who now seemed part of our ever growing family and walked towards the hike starting point. Unfortunately the hike route we wanted to do was closed and the other routes would have taken longer, so instead we decided to walk into town and around Queenstown Park. Ruth headed back to the hostel after we’d said our goodbyes and agreed to arrange a reunion in Europe! Then we walked towards the park.
Queenstown park is very nice and calm, you have people playing disc golf, (golf but with a frisbee), lots of amazing trees, beautiful tennis courts and bowling greens (though not real grass!) and a great rose garden.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaygoat/8173507563/
Afterwards we walked into town and headed for a veg juice from:
Johnny Barr’s
15 Church Street,
Queenstown
New Zealand
+64 3 409 0169
For lunch we headed over to:
Bombay Palace Indian Restaurant & Takeaways
66 Shotover Street,
Queenstown
New Zealand
+64 3 441 2886
The waiting staff here are very knowledgable about the way the food is cooked. We asked about the frier and whether there is a separate one for meat and vegetarian items. Straight away he said it was the same frier. He also knew exactly which breads had egg in them.
After walking back to the car which was parked near the hostel we drove to Arrowtown. Arrowtown is a historic gold mining town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Arrow River approximately 5 km from State Highway 6. There is also road access directly to Queenstown via the Shotover Gorge and a third route via the picturesque Lake Hayes.
During the high point of the gold rush the population of Arrowtown rose to over 7,000 and became the center of a larger municipality, which covered the new settlements of Macetown, Skippers and Bullendale (today only ghost towns). Arrowtown was constituted as a borough in 1867 and became part of the Queenstown-Lakes District in the local government reorganisation of 1989.
The town reached a population low of fewer than 200 people in the 1960s before gaining popularity again. According to the 2006 New Zealand census, the usually-resident population of Arrowtown was 2,151, a 27.1% increase since 2001. The town has seen considerable growth and construction, but it falls under strict appearance covenants applied by the local authority that aim to preserve the appearance of the town. There are many well preserved buildings used by European and Chinese immigrants dating from the gold mining days of the town. Arrowtown is the home of the Lakes District Museum and Ah Lum’s store.
Bordering the town is Sir Michael Hill’s Championship Golf Course which is home to the New Zealand Golf Open. This championship golf course is a private membership club, but does allow green fee players by appointment only. The Club also provides a Day Spa that is available to the public.
A BBH hostel, in any other circumstance this would be a fantastic hostel but because we left Butterfli lodge which has just been superior, this lodge feels a little mediocre!
Afterwards we walked by the shops, cafes, restaurants and cinema of Buckingham Street, the Main Street of Arrowtown. We popped into the cinema and saw a listing for the movie called ‘The Intouchables’. So amazing that only yesterday Ruth was telling us about this movie, as it sounded good we bought tickets to it, the showing was at 6:15 so as we had a couple of hours, after chatting to the lady Sam (from Derbyshire, England!) running the cute little cInema, we had a wander to the Chinese settlement. The settlement was very interesting, we saw how the Chinese suffered real hardship during the mining of gold in this area in the late 1800s.
Whilst in town we saw an Indian restaurant called Mantra, Sangeet noticed an elderly long bearded Sikh by the window above the restaurant and became very happy, we had not seen a Gursikh in the South Island. Sangeet said he looked like an angel. I was confused and just laughed.
Afterwards we went to watch the movie, The Intouchables, this is a fantastic movie and definitely worth watching. Based on a true story.
Dorothy Browns is a luxurious boutique Cinema and Bar in picturesque, historic Arrowtown.
The main cinema is beautifully designed with Chinese silk ceilings, chandeliers and seriously spacious seats. The Den is smaller, comfortable and relaxed. It screens mostly arthouse movies.
We then went to eat at Mantra, it is run by a Sikh lady called Shammi, I would like to say the food was amazing to help support a Sikh business but I can not, the food was made for a western tastebud. Personally I do not think people from India can cook, only Indians from East Africa can cook!
Mantra Restaurant
12 The Royal Oak,
Buckingham Street,
Arrowtown
New Zealand
+64 3 442 0880
We returned to the hostel and sat with fellow backpackers in the lounge to watch another movie, Happy Gilmore.
After breakfast we headed over to the city centre to have a look at the underwater observatory, the guide book said it was free, they actually charged NZ$5.00, being true backpackers we decided not to part with our money so had a wander around the lakeside. We saw people disembarking the steam powered TSS Earnslaw, this has been cruising the lake for 100 years now.
Afterwards we popped into Patagonia Chocolates to use the internet and for their hot chocolate, which is much talked about but not that good! O well at least the internet is fast and we got a lot of work completed! We decided to return to Fergburger, Sangeet had fries, I had falafel burger and onion rings, totally unhealthy but goooood!! We sat overlooking the lake and Sangeet ate her fries and I had a few onion rings, I decided to eat the rest at the hostel. We saw Tammy from the hostel walk by and invited her to join us. We all chatted for a while then I walked back to the hostel whilst Sangeet popped back into town to get some sunscreen and foot rescue for me….the hot weather has made my skin break, so much that it now hurts to walk!
Patagonia chocolates:
Old fashioned sweet shop
At the hostel the manager Cindy was looking at this blog and commented on the good work.
When Sangeet got back from town we drove to Glenorchy, a very small town, a complete opposite to the bustle of Queenstown. It is about 45 minutes away from Queenstown and the journey there is spectacular. After walking onto the jetty and talking to a French family who have been living in Papeete in French Polynesia, we wandered around the tiny little town and then walked over to Foxy’s Cafe where we both ordered a hot chocolate. Again I have had better!!
The drive to Glenorchy:
Glenorchy
Foxy’s cafe
We then drove to Kinloch, the only thing in this town was a small motel. I would definitely recommend this town, especially if you enjoy the peace and quiet and stunning lakeside views.
Drive to Kinloch
Untreated road
Kinloch
As it was getting late and the sun would soon be setting we headed back to Queenstown and to the supermarket called Freshchoice
Freshchoice
64 George Road
Queenstown
New Zealand
where we stocked up on a few items for this evening snacks, soup, crackers and Brie.
In the common room we (Tammy, Ruth, Sangeet and I) watched Bad Boys 2, a lighthearted movie. Earlier in the day, Sangeet asked Ruth what her favourite movie is, Ruth replied that she really enjoyed the French movie “The Intouchables”, I had never heard of it. Apparently it is a true story about how a paralysed man who employed a ‘nurse’ who showed no sympathy and brought so much richness to his life. It sounds like a good movie and we said we would keep an eye out for it.
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around.Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep,I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die!Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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