We didn't make an early start this morning, in spite of the fact that the weather was absolutely beautiful. We slept until 8, then fiddled around with computers. Then Paul started to worry that we still hadn't heard from the travel agent who we asked to change our flights to Auckland. We want to spend a week in North Island, instead of being in South Island until December 10th, and, according to the Quantas/Jetstar website, you can't make the change yourself, your travel agent has to do it. But our travel agent hasn't replied. Paul decided to email again and wrote a long email, then lost his Internet connection and also lost the email. Eventually, we packed and checked out, then sat on the motel patio and used my iPad to re-write and send the email. But we didn't leave until almost 10.30.
We started to travel towards Lake Tekapo, a journey we have already made in the tour bus. I had to beat Paul with a stick because he kept insisting on stopping to photograph irrigation systems; I have no idea why he finds these fascinating. It's not as if we haven't seen irrigation systems before. I have made him promise not to bore friends and family with such photographs.
As well as the irrigation systems, we continued to admire the Russell Lupins all along the verges of the road, particularly nearer to Omarama. There must be something about the soil or the climate that they like. I photographed these while we were stuck at some road works.
The sky was a clear blue, the sun was shining and there were hardly any clouds. We stopped at Lake Ruataniwha when we saw these wonderful reflections in the beautiful blue lake.
We had to turn and come back to find a place to take this photo, and had not long been on our way again when we noticed a huge white apparition on the skyline.
Mount Cook had pierced the clouds enough to appear to us for the first time. You can probably see the skirt of cloud beneath the peak, so we hurried to get closer before the clouds hid everything again.
At Lake Pukaki, we noticed that the lake and the mountain made a beautiful picture, and that the clouds were threatening to cover everything, so we turned back once again and went back to the Visitors' Centre to take more pictures. This is the closest we could get.
Shortly after this, the clouds covered most of the peak.
We spent a bit of time in the Visitors' Centre looking at the information boards. I was particularly interested in one about James Mackenzie, for whom Mackenzie County and the Mackenzie Pass were named, since he discovered a pass and plains unknown to local settlers, though known to the local Maori. There seems to have been some uncertainty about whether he was a shepherd or a thief; he was imprisoned for theft, but many felt his trial was unfair, and he received a pardon.
We set off for Lake Tekapo, where we lunched. The lake was every bit as beautiful as it was before - still the intense blue colour.
The wind was becoming rather cold, and I began to regret putting on cut-off trousers. We pressed on for Geraldine, this time not viewing giant sweaters or mosaics with 2 million pieces. We did have a cup of coffee though, and I put on warmer clothes.
We wanted to avoid the rather boring road across the Canterbury Plain, so we took the scenic route, which skirts the edge of the hills and goes close to the ski area. The landscape was slightly more interesting than the trip across the plain. It is very rural and looks quite English, with green pastures and rolling hills. Eventually we reached Methven, which is the après-ski area for the Mount Hutt ski field, and where we decided to stay.
To our surprise, it seems completely flat around Methven. It is about a half hour drive to the ski field, and there is no accommodation up there, so everybody makes the journey up from the town and then down again every day. When we decided to go and look at the ski area for ourselves, we discovered that the road up the mountain was not made up, just gravel, and that it seemed to be closed anyway. This seems very odd to us, being used to Alpine or American resorts, with accommodation on the slopes and good roads with lots of transport. There are supposed to be some walks in the area, so we may take another look tomorrow if the weather is fine.
On the way to the ski area, we passed this field.
We really aren't sure whether or not these are wild Lupins, as the field is so huge. It really does show most of the colours we see all the time, though there are more of the paler ones here than we have seen on most roadsides. We have sometimes seen big groups of wild flowers like this in the distance, usually in river beds, but never any so close to the road.
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