December 21, 2009


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Subject: December 21: The roadtrip begins
Date Sent: Tue, December 29, 2009 6:39:56 PM

G'day,

Today was the start of the roadtrip across South Island, and it couldn't have been a better day! Everything was perfect -- the weather, the scenery, and the names of the lakes!

We started from Christchurch around 9:30 AM and started driving Southwest towards Mt. Cook. This is a very scenic drive and I was thankful I had an extra photographer in the passenger seat! Driving on the "wrong" side of the road was hard enough without having to worry about taking pictures while driving! The road went Southwest of Christchurch through some farms (lot of sheep and llamas -- something I did not expect to see in New Zealand, and was so surprised at their existence that I didn't even believe they were actually llamas). There are also plenty of signs telling drivers to "slow down" or "take a break" -- the first few signs we saw like that were pretty funny but we didn't take a picture. Now I wish we had!

The road soon turns Westward and goes by two lakes -- first Lake Tekapo and then Lake Pukaki (two names that I found really funny to pronounce and kept saying them aloud again and again -- just for a grin -- and I kept doing this for the next few days too). My tourbook had said Lake Tekapo is a good place to watch the sunset, and I mentioned this to Priya -- that we should be back in time to see the sunset here. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake, WISHING I had booked a room in a motel over there instead of in the town of Timaru. After that was on to Lake Pukaki (that's not Tekapo, it's Pukaki, because Tekapo sounds different than Pukaki). In between Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki was our first view of the majestic Mt. Cook (also known as Auraki to the locals). This made for a GORGEOUS drive all the way down -- the mountain was always in our view from here on out!

Lake Pukaki (not Lake Tekapo) has a "Mt. Cook Lookout" viewpoint and this reminded me a lot of Banff Lake in Canada -- same turquoise-colored lake with ice-capped peaks all around -- just beautiful! There were some large rocks by the lakeshore where we could just sit and relax and admire the view ... it was perfect! Lake Tekapo (not Lake Pukaki) had "good" views; Lake Pukaki (not Lake Tekapo) had "fantastic" views! It was a place to linger... but not for long!

The mountain is roughly 60km away from this viewpoint and those 60km took more than an hour. Not because it is a slow winding road, but because we kept stopping everywhere for the views! Both Priya and I were thoroughly impressed with this lake (Pukaki, not Tekapo) and the views all around! And it was the perfect start to the roadtrip through South Island!!

At the mountain there is a welcome centre, giftshop, cafeteria and "Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre". Priya (who -- like my cousin Kaustubh -- is one of those people who must climb every mountain she sees) wanted to go there, but for some reason that I don't remember now, we didn't go. Instead we took a short trail around some streams there, up to a suspension bridge then came back to the car and started the drive back.

Back down to Lake Pukaki (not Lake Tekapo) and we decided to sit at the Mt. Cook Lookout viewpoint for another hour or so until making our way to Lake Tekapo for the sunset. I don't think any pictures were taken this time, but that doesn't diminish the quality of the view! I will say that it was a little more fun trying to step over "non-unstable" rocks while trying to get back to the car :)

It had been a long day and by the time we reached Lake Tekapo -- about an hour before sunset, Priya had fallen asleep. I sat in the drivers seat looking over the lake (Tekapo, not Pukaki, because Pukaki is not Tekapo) and watching families walking by with ice cream cones in their hands.

Well, I couldn't resist the temptation for too long. As soon as I got out of the car Priya woke up, and we walked over to a restaurant where we ordered our ice creams, and I forgot my camera inside -- for about 30 seconds.

As I said earlier, being at Lake Tekapo at sunset was planned based on something I had read in my tourbook. But when we were actually there -- sitting on that bench, eating ice cream, watching several birds gather around our feet, and talking about Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" -- we decided that the sunset over here wouldn't be that special. So that was the end of it -- after finishing the ice creams we went back to the car and drove to the town of Timaru for the night.

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- this day was the PERFECT start to the roadtrip around South Island!

A couple of you have asked me about this: I've already uploaded all my pictures up to December 29 to my website, but the links are not yet active. I'll "turn them on" after I've sent each day's email. I've also included the daily drive map for each day. December 21st pictures will become available online about 5-10 minutes after I've sent this email :-)

Cheers,
-me.

From Ishaan's camera:

From Priya's camera:

Dec 20 Contents Dec 22