Lake Tekapo is known to have one of the darkest night skies in the world, and we were lucky enough to enjoy a cloudless sky that night. A popular spot to stargaze is near the picturesque Church of the Good Shepherd, which stands atop a hillock overlooking the lake. Unfortunately the night was not so serene nor dark due to the blinding headlights from the constant parade of tourists driving up to the church.
The town is also well known for its beautiful fields of lupins, where just outside of town we stopped by a river to take some photos.
As beautiful as they are, they’re actually not native to New Zealand and are an invasive species.
These lupins, which bloom between November and February, range in colour from blue to purple to pink to white.
Tekapo River is a glacial river, which is why it has such a beautiful turquoise colour. The effect is caused by “glacial flour”, which are small particles that are eroded from the glacier movement.
There was a nice pedestrian bridge called the Maclaren Footbridge, making for a pleasant way to reach the Church.
Here’s another shot from the bridge itself. A much safer way to cross than the other bridge, where you’d have to share it with the vehicle traffic.
Our wonderful Fernadette! We used this area to take some glamour shots of the van in preparation for our “For Sale” add in Christchurch.
Across the lake we noticed an interesting cloud formation tucked away in the valley.
Lake Tekapo, with the Southern Mountain Range on the other side. Don’t quote me on this, but I believe that high peak to the left is Mount Cook.
The Church of the Good Shepherd, where everyone congregates to watch the night sky.
We did indeed see a lot of stars, probably more if the car headlights from all the tourists didn’t blind us every 30 seconds.
A time lapse photo, which you can tell by the “shooting star” just off to the left of the center. It wasn’t actually a shooting star but a satellite. You can also see the constellation of Orion just below-right of center.
We got up at 6:30 a.m. the following morning to take more photos of the church, hopefully without so many tourists in them. It turned out we had the place to ourelves.
It was so calm at that hour that the lake had a mirror-like quality to it.
If you ever visit Lake Tekapo, you may notice that you’re being watched by a dog on a hill, who is standing remarkably still. After several minutes, you’ll realize that it’s not a dog but in fact a statue of a dog.
The statue is from The Sheepdog Memorial, which was built to commemorate the border collies who helped the Scottish shepherds herd sheep in the area.
This is a close to a mirror as you can get! Had those ducks in the distance been closer, they could’ve ruined the mirror with their paddling. Instead they added to the tranquility of the scene.
