South Island Day 2 : 25 March 2018
Fine, cloudy at Tekapo, 22•C
Up at 6:15am after a good nights sleep to catch the sunrise. The rain from last night had cleared and, whilst there was cloud over Banks Peninsula, the sky was clear. We wandered around the peninsula that the camp sits on, shooting the predawn light, some wildlife and the sunrise itself over Banks Peninsula.
We headed back to the van, grabbed some breakfast then headed out at 9:15am. We drove through the surrounding farmlands ( we might have got a little lost ), through Sedgemere then back to State Highway 1 and south. We stopped for some morning tea at Temuka at 11:00am then turned off just south of Temuka to Pleasant Point, then through to Cave. We headed over the hill to the picture perfect St David's Church, had a look around ( it was locked unfortunately ), had a chat to the man mowing the lawns about the church ownership ( it is tied to Mt Cook station, but is in a trust ). We headed back into Cave, had a look around All Saints Church ( also locked ) then took some photos of St Monicas Church. We headed north out of Cave and up the valley to Fairlie ( this route to Fairlie was a much nicer drive than that normal road through Geraldine )
We stopped for lunch in Fairlie at 2pm, along with what seemed like hundred's of rowers returning from the Maardi Cup. Back to the van and carried on over Burkes Pass and down into Tekapo. Checked in at the camp ( Lake Tekapo Motels and Holiday Park, $54 for a powered site ), and parked up.
We wandered into town to get some internet ( patchy phone / data signal at the camp, but much better 100m along the road. And the camp sell wifi so have no interest in having good mobile data coverage ) then back to the camp. We had some tea then headed out in the van at 6:30pm, drove to the east side of Lake Tekapo looking for spots to shoot the sunset, but wound up back near the Church of the Good Shepherd. Sunset wasn't anything ( again ) so back to the hot pools near the camp at 8pm ( $27 each ) and had a soak. Back to the camp at 9pm and relaxed.
