We had the most awesome drive to Lake Tekapo from Akaroa the landscape changed again and again. We got to a point where we drove around ther corner and saw in the horizon mountains with peaks of snow and we had to pull over to just stare in amazment, it was definetly a WOW moment. I guess the biggest WOW came when we rounded the hill and there was Lake Tekapo in all its glory. On the southern end was the Church Of Good Shepard which looked directly over. The Lake was a deep turquiose colour and the hilss around where a great contrast. We walked to the lakes edge and dippied our feet into the ice cold water, it was just amazing. Just at that moment a whole group of Japanese tourists pulled in all with their 2 finger salutes to the camera. We decided to go to the township and get something to drink. We did find a pretty little place to sit and have our ice cold Coca Cola mmmmm....... The weather has been pretty warm and the suns rays are pretty strong here so the smallest shade can bring instant relief. We then decided we would head back down to the lake and try to get a shot from a distance of the Church and the lake and I think we managed to pull it off. Then we saw a dog staue that was pretty cool and we sat on a rock and stared at the lake.

We decided to find our free camp and drove for about 1/2 hour through farm tracks with roaming sheep until we got to lake Alexandria, we pulled in and were a bit bemused as to where to go. We saw an old couple and decided to ask, they turned out to be very nice and directed us to a shady patch and we parked there for the night. It was more like a small community there and everyone Knew everyone. We walked to the lake and sat and ate a whole bag of 1KG carrots and read the Lonely Planet, then decided to go up to Rodney and make dinner. The old couple walked on by and started telling us they had a rowing boat and we could take it out on the lake, so we took them up on the offer. After dinner we went for a romantic row but found we could only go in circles. We decided taht the best way to go was to sit on the Wharf and take it all in. The old couple tended to pop up everywhere and they started telling us about their active lifestyle and how they've travelled around alot and at 80+ put us to shame, truely amazing and goes to show that age doesn't hold you back.

We headed of the next day via the Observitery which is mounted on a really hig hill. Lake Tekapo has the clearest night sky in NZ. The views were great and we could see Mt Cook in the distance, the higest mountain in Australasia, I think Rodney enjoyed the view too. We then headed towards Mt Cook and drove through some cool scenery.We got to the Mt Cook lookout and Ellie discovered she'd lost one half of her infamous trio the Havianas, arghhh. Well we asked the Info Centre if it would be wise going to Mt Cook but they advised against it as the weather was coming in and the winds were really strong already. We headed towards Twizel and stopped at a Scene where the LORD OF THE RINGS was filmed, it was the battle scene with the alps as a backdrop. Twizel was really a stop of, refuel place and wasn't alot to keep us hanging around for. So we headed towards Elephant rocks where Narnia was filmed, actually the final battle scene and it was instantly recognisable, I had a picture taken with a twig but I thing Aslam told me to put it down, or was that the wifes tummy rumbling, one of those lifes little mysteries!!!!!!

So off to Oamuru which had Penguins and a really rundown feel to it. We had KFC and then went to the Free penguin lookout and saw a penguin waddle onto the beach, we then went to the paying penguin place and found it to be expensive so we looked around and waddled off. Oamuru was really dull and had little going for it so we left to scout our free camp down. It was perfect, secluded and you could hear the birds tweating, but then the most awful sound of heavy metal music came from a 50 year old ladys car which was on really loud and she had black lipstick and looked very scarey, could she be a witch, she had 3 tents setup and only her, could there be piles of poor children piled up in there. Well a family with the most anoying kids arrived and setup and the kids ran around the van all night so we can only hope that those tents were for them. We did finally get some sleep but in the morning the beans worked wonders for both of us and we made a hasty exit to track some loos down.......

Next stop Dunedin and the infamous Cadburys world mmmmmmmm!!!!!