Another day, Another Stunning location

Saturday 15 November

Woke to a dryer, less windy morning; though it was a chilly 1 degree Celsius outside, we were quite sad to leave our lovely DOC camp at Aoraki, Mt Cook. Though the dawn skies were grey, there were small chinks of sunshine on the mountain range behind the camp by 8am and hints of blue skies as we pulled out, through the rather tricky ford/dip at around 10am. Driving past these epic landscapes and valleys took me back to O'Level Geography with Mr Steadman - if only he could see me now!

But as we headed south down the west side of Lake Pukaki, the sun battled through, colouring the waters a variety of stunningly vibrant turquoise shades. By 11:30 am we rumbled, rocked and rolled our way to a front-row pitch at the Punatahu Freedom Camp at the southern end of the Lake Pukaki. What a stunning spot with million-dollar views! However, the levelness of the area left a lot to be desired - we ended up with the left wheels up on the top level of the ramp, chocked by a huge triangular rock, and with the rear tyre up on two flat rocks rather than leave it hanging in midair!!!

We had an early lunch in Banjo, overlooking the most glorious view (Aoraki was almost obscured by intense rain which looked stunning but would have been less fun to experience in person!), then hopped on the bikes for a ride up the A2O cycle trail - more Ocean2Alps in our case. In the early afternoon sun, the lake twinkled and glowed a number of stunning shades as clouds scudded past overhead. Despite the sun it was remarkably chilly with temperatures hovering around 6*C - hence cycling in many layers including my windproof Kathmandu fleece jacket!

We probably covered about 18km in each direction, along the bottom of the lake, then up Hayman Road to the Tekapo B Power Station and on along the gravel road for a few more kms. Everywhere we looked, the views were simply spectacular.

Back at the camp by 3ish, the spaces with the best views were already filling up around us. We managed to manoeuvre the Prado out past a tightly parked camper and set off to explore the Tekapo Canal Road. Turns out, for the most part it is only accessible on foot or bike after the salmon farm, so we parked up at the end of the public section of the road and took a stroll to the enigmatically named “Ephemeral Tarn”. Quite intrigued by this giant Sistema tub which had been left for the Te Araroa Trail walkers to find and enlighten themselves on the problem of wilding pines in this area. i'm guessing the Tarn is ephemeral as it probably dries up in high summer, but was pretty full of spring rainwater at this point in the season.

The views from up here, and over the salmon farm were fabulous, but had nothing on the kaleidoscopic sunset we would witness that evening after we’d unwisely eaten dinner outside in the dying light and the encroaching cold. So many subtle changes in light over this magnificent landscape - wow! 🤩

We did however get a visit from a wee red poll - kinda like a sparrow with a jaunty scarlet beret - that was so cool.

But check out the transition of the sunset lighting as the sun set out to the west of Lake Pukaki, gradually changing the tones of the light on the snow on Aoraki until the sky over the Southern Alps glowed pink purple with just the meerest hint of twinkle on the top of the highest peak.