Even though it wasn’t strictly on the way to Lake Tekapo, Sumner had been recommended to us as a pretty little town on the coast and it didn’t disappoint. Although it was cloudy, the sun was highlighting an eerie mist across the whole bay, it caught the light in such a unique way and gave the beach such an ethereal quality. On top of the beach’s large rock was a group of people, I decided to take a climb up and see what the fuss was about, “must be a good view from there” I thought.
About half way up I recognised one of the people in the group, then two, then I saw a drumkit. I said to myself, “A drumkit? Up here on a big rock?”. The penny dropped. I was standing on the set – and in the way – of Sam and Eric’s real band’s latest music video. After shouting my approval for their set last night and spotting the cameras far below on the green I made my way sheepishly out of the limelight and back to the van.
Over the hill was what we’d later find out to be the hometown of Zaproot’s presenter Jessica Williamson, a beautiful bay called Taylor’s Mistake. We breathed in the vista and the fresh sea air and hit the road again. Tekapo was to be the first stop on our tour down through the huge lakes and alpine mountain terrain of the South Island’s heart.
Following on from our brief detour to Sumner, we rejoined the main artery of the South Island, State Highway 1, running the entire length of the island it’s largely straight and well maintained, something I won’t be able to say very often on the rest of the trip.
We followed this road for 100-odd kms South from Christchurch, through small town after small town, stopping only for some groceries and to take advantage of a DVD shop that was sadly closing down to feed our portable DVD player that was included in Bazil’s hire price, 3 5-dollar DVDs later (Sexy Beast, Pursuit of Happyness and The Cleaner if you’re wondering) we were turning onto the more shapely highway 79 to start our ascent to Lake Tekapo’s 780m elevation.
The next hour passed without event, other than seeing our first real mountain. Initially the Two Thumb Range and further into the pink dusky fog we could just make out the Southern Alps, or Ka Tiritiri o Te Moana in Maori. We arrived at Lake Tekapo under cover of a beautifully clear and star-filled night sky. The imaginatively-named Lake Tekapo Motels and Holiday Park would be our hookup for the night and we hit the sack hopeful of some clear lake views in the morning.
After a freezing night we were thankful for the electric heater that we found stowed in Bazil’s bowels and for the relatively clear sky. Lake Tekapo was a beautiful sight in the crisp morning, muted grey-blue water under a sky that hinted at the bright blue beyond the white-capped mountaintops, it was the first of many stunning alpine views that we’d enjoy over the next few days.
Today’s itinerary was to reach Mt. Cook, about 45kms away as the crow flies but a good 90kms by road, the upside being that we’d be driving the length of Lake Tekapo’s larger and arguably prettier sister, Lake Pukaki.