Lake Tekapo is barely a dot on the map, a cross in a road, but it’s nice. It is set on the shores of a robin’s egg blue glacial lake bordered by New Zealand’s Southern Alps. People come here in cars, caravans, RV’s, mountain bikes or simply hiking in with backpacks to camp, sleeping in tents, cabins, or motel rooms. There are no hotels. This place is gorgeous and is populated with rustic holiday houses. This is a place for extreme outdoor activity. In just a month or so, the same people personalities will be here but the paddle boards, kayaks, and mountain bikes will be replaced by vehicles with skis on top for swooshing down the mountainsides.
This lake and mountain area is a dark sky park. Ordinarily, on clear nights the entire area manages artificial lighting so the sky can be the brilliant showcase it always is. Even on the stormiest nights, the most cloudy obscure nights, or even on nights when a full moon lights up the sky, the stars are there, twinkling and glowing far, far away whether we can see them or not. This dark sky park was going to be our one great chance to see the Milky Way again or to even in our wildest dreams, catch a glimpse of the Southern Lights, the Arora Australis. But lo and behold, fate was not with us. Thick, dense clouds covered our skies each of the three nights we slept here. No stars, no Milky Way, and certainly no Southern Lights! Still, even with no starry skies, the place is pretty and attracts many, many visitors. The water of the big lake is saturated with “glacier flour,” fine glacial granules that reflect light and turns the water that beautiful color blue.
We hiked up the mountain to the observatory overlooking the town. They said the first part of the hike was steep but the rest was easy. Oh boy howdy! It was steep and much longer than we expected but we met people along the way. Talking with interesting people makes time fly by and hard work much more manageable. We met Stacy, a retired firefighter/EMT from the City of Los Angeles. She’s young to be retired but note to self: in the next life, find employment in a big California city government office . . . the pay is good and retirement is better. Our conversations made the trip fly by. At the top of the great hill, the view of the glacial Lake Tekapo and its little town was worth the effort to get there.
With only one more day in Lake Tekapo, we hiked through the woods on day three. We love walking in the woods; we have since we met. Back then we’d hike around northern Arkansas and camp on the Buffalo River National River Park or along the river in Rush, Arkansas. We have a grand collection of memories and lots of stories to share about those days!
The floor of the Lake Tekapo forest was carpeted in newly fallen pine straw and sprinkled with those glorious orange-dotted mushrooms that we have since learned are highly poisonous, even to the touch. At one spot a little fan-tailed bird, a New Zealand Fantail or Piwakawaka, befriended us and followed us along the path, twittering and chatting. It made us think he liked us and wanted to be with us but we’ve learned this is an ordinary mannerism for them. They are very friendly, almost tame wild birds. He/she chatted and followed us a long way. I think it might have landed on my hiking pole or my finger if I could have stood there long enough. In Maori mythology, the indigenous people of New Zealand, a visit by this little bird is a bit worrisome. It was thought to be a message of death from the Gods. I think not! Today’s visit was a gift, a good omen, and a sign of good fortune. It is moments like this that lighten the heart and make us especially grateful to God for so many things and especially today for letting us meet this glorious little creature!
